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THE LAW OF 
SUGGESTION 



A COMPENDIUM 
FOR THE PEOPLE 

BY 

REV- STANLEY LEFEVRE KREBS 

A. M., Psy. Dr. 

Member Society of Arts, London; Medico-Legal 
Society, New York; Society of Psychical Research, 
London; Laboratory of Psychology, 'Washington, D. 
C Etc., Etc.; author "Poverty's Factory", "Twin 
Demons", "The Mysteries Exposed", Etc. 

FIRST EDITION 



SCIENCE PRESS 

The Republic, Chicago 

1906 



t> 



TTlSRARYofCQNGRESS 
| Two Copies Received 

I DEC 19 1906 

■ / Copyright Entry . 

CLASS A XXc s , No. 

CO FY B. 






Copyright 1906 

BY 

STANLEY LeFEVRE KREBS 



FOREWORD, 



My purpose is threefold: — 

i. To give a bird's eye view of the 
whole field, for busy people — all about 
Suggestion but not, of course, all of 
it. 

2. To tear from the subject that veil 
of mystery, or "occultism," with which 
so many initiates delight to surround 
it before the eyes of the public. 

3. To awaken, if possible, an earn- 
est and patient study of the matter on 
the part of parents, business men, pre- 
ceptors, preachers, and people general- 
ly, as it can be observed by them af- 
fecting the affairs not only of com- 
mon life, but the profoundest interests, 
also, of health, intellect and character 
— body, mind and soul. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER ONE. 

History—In Eden; in Ceremonies of Egypt, 
India, and Babylon; Mesmer; Braid; 
Charcot; Liebault; Bernheim; various 
theories; deep sleep; modern status; sug- 
gestion vs. hypnotism. 

CHAPTER TWO. 

The Law — The law stated; force and mat- 
ter; lines in consciousness; suggestion in 
religion; in church worship; in creeds; in 
doctrine; in revivals; in conversion; vice 
and virtue; in advertisements; in sales- 
manship; recent experiments; environ- 
ment and heredity; how to apply the law. 

CHAPTER THREE. 

Speculative — How this law is supposed to 
act; physiological theory; psychological 
theory; the saving fact. 

CHAPTER FOUR. 

Methods of Hypnotizing and of Administer- 
ing Suggestion— iClasses of subjects; 
tests; Charcot's methods; Lieubeault's 
method; crystal gazing; metronome; the 
Braid method; the Flower method; meth- 
od for refractives; Dr. Parkyn's method; 
force methods; natural sleep; child train- 
ing; sexual perverts; a great force in na- 
ture. 

CHAPTER FIVE. 

Indirect Suggestion — Defined; great auxil- 
iary; in diplomacy and business; in relig- 
ion; in church life; in child training; ig- 
norance of parents and teachers; co-oper- 
ative suggestions; in schools; developing 
4 



CONTENTS. 

energy and industry; how to apply it for 
good. 

CHAPTER SIX. 
Positive vs. Negative — Folly of school teach- 
ers; rules for negatives; correcting bad 
habits; reforming inebriates; health. 

CHAPTER SEVEN. 
Auxiliary Conditions — On the part of the 
subjects; expectant attention; an experi- 
ment; patent medicines; a danger; soni- 
nambules; on the part of the operator; 
requisites; character; Jesus of Nazareth; 
miracles; power of faith; limit to the law; 
both together. 

CHAPTER EIGHT. 
Its Field — Wide as man; in the physical 
realm; healing diseases; two classes; 
what it cannot do; in dentistry and sur- 
gery; diseases which it can cure; best re- 
sults; place of power; severe cases; men- 
tal causes; Bright's disease; paralysis; 
cost; modern medicine; vital reservoirs, 
relation of matter and mind; in the men- 
tal and emotional realm; habits; fears; 
worries; insanities; incorrigible children; 
exaltation of mind over matter; inspira- 
tion; actresses; ministeis; musicians; 
gecius; business men; changing tone or 
tenor of life; exhorbitant ideas; wonders 
of Pentecost; Christ feeding the 5,000; 
co-operative suggestion; in the moral 
realm; a word of hope; great light; lines 
of power; reforms and conversions; sexual 
manias; dipsomania; remarkable case; a 
way of escape; law of attractiveness; law 
of God. 

CHAPTER NINE. 
Objections — Does it facilitate crime ?j can 
the immoral use it?; the answer; hyp- 



CONTENTS. 



notism and the courts; can it control 
people against their will?; does it weaken 
the Will? 



CHAPTER TEN. 

Dangers — Some imaginary ones; making- 
others; real dangers; in the hands of lay- 
man;" in stage exhibitions; "two days 
sleep"; the greatest of all dangers; cases 
and illustrations; what physicians and all 
should know. 



CHAPTER ELEVEN. 

Explains Many Popular Mysteries — Pow- 
wowing; extent of it; natural "healers"; 
charms and talismans; "Magnetized Wa- 
ter"; lifting a human being or "Levita- 
tion"; etc. 



CHAPTER TWELVE. 

Simple Rules for Self Help — Guarding per- 
sonality; "Influence"; the secret of it all; 
the rules for practice. 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN. 

Some Extraordinary Phenomena — Tele- 
pathy; cases; "traveling clairvoyance"; 
the sublimal mind; heredity; prenatal 
suggestions; control in sex; death con- 
trolled?; experiments with death; re- 
markable case; double and multiple per- 
sonality; cases; a recent triumph of 
psychology; insanity; vital questions; in- 
spiring vista; mastery of mind. 



CHAPTER ONE, 

HISTORY. 

^"pHB most important development 
made by psychology in recent 
years is its progress from mere self- 
inspection to self-control. Its assump- 
tion of a practical character, its discov- 
ery of experimental, demonstrable 
contents moved it forward from chaos 
to cosmos, from disorder to law, so that 
the Scotchman's famous definition of 
this science will no longer hold when 
he described it as "Twa folk disputin' 
thegither; he that's listenin 5 dinna ken 
what he that's talkin' means, and he 
that's talkin' dinna ken himselY' 

There are traces of suggestion in the 
dawn of history, in the infancy of the 
race. It is as "old as Adam." Eve 
succumbed to suggestive influence, and 

9 



10 LAW; OF SUGGESTION. 

she immediately demonstrated its 
power upon man and is doing so still ! 

Suggestion is as old as mother-love. 
What reader is too old to recall how 
mother, in his childhood, used to pass 
her hand over the place of pain and 
say, as she kissed away the tears, 
''There, dear, it doesn't hurt any more, 
the pain is all gone, it is all gome?" 
And it was so. 

Suggestion is no new thing under 
the sun. It is certain it was employed 
in Egyptian ceremonies and Hindu sa- 
cred rites long centuries since. In his 
lectures on the religious and sacred 
literature of Babylon Mr. W. St. Clad 
Boscawen described some very curious 
passages found among the cuneiform 
inscriptions which speak of a medicine 
man visiting a sick person and making 
passes over his body, and the fact is 
corroborated in a recently discovered 
sculpture where a god is seen making 
passes behind the neck of a kneeling 
figure. 

i. Fluid. 

The modern era, however, com- 



HISTORY. 11 

mences with Mesmer (i733- l8l 5)- He 
promulgated the theory of fluidic ema- 
nation from the human hand and or- 
ganism, and the great question with 
him was how to make "passes" in the 
most effective manner in order to 
either distribute or concentrate this 
"fluid" upon the person of the subject. 

2. Sleep. 

The remarkable experiments and in- 
dustry of James Braid proved the 
fluidic theory untrue or at least un- 
necessary, for he found he could dis- 
pense with the passes and could avoid 
personal contact altogether with the 
subject and yet produce the hypnotic 
sleep. Braid regarded the hypnotic or 
induced sleep as the active agent, the 
therapeutic force at work in the results 
which he attained. 

Braid, as I have said, combatted the 
hypothesis of animal magnetism and 
metallo-therapeutics taught by Mes- 
mer, and later the school of Nancy, 
following in Braid's footsteps, over- 
threw the old fallacy which Charcot 



12 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

had partially revived. So long ago as 
the International Congress of Psychol- 
ogy in 1892, all fluidic-emanation the- 
ories had ceased to attract scientific 
attention. 

It will not be edifying to the reader 
for me to rehearse the professional 
persecutions to which the pioneers in 
this science were subjected, such as 
Elliotson, Braid, Esdaile, and others. 
A full history can be read in J. Milne 
Bramwell's "Hypnotism," published in 
1903, to which the interested reader is 
kindly referred and where the story is 
told in thrilling detail. 

3. Suggestion in Sleep. 

But Liebault found that it was the 
suggestions given during the hypnotic 
sleep which wrought the effects desired. 
Bernheim was Liebault's most distin- 
guished pupil and practiced under Lie- 
bault's hypothesis, although he discov- 
ered that under exceptionally favorable 
circumstances analgesia could be in- 
duced by suggestion while the subject 
was not asleep. Bernheim never fully 



HISTORY. 13 

realized the profound importance of 
this discovery of his, and so continued 
to put as many patients as he could 
asleep, in profound hypnosis, believing 
that this induced sleep was the condi- 
tion of "suggestibility." 

4. Suggestion Without Sleep. 

It remained for American practition- 
ers, such as Parkyn, Fitzer, Quacken- 
bos, and others, to demonstrate by nu- 
merous experiments that sleep was not 
necessary for the production of the 
suggestible condition. The vital ques- 
tion today is, What is the best method 
for inducing suggestibility without pro- 
found hypnosis, and, How can the most 
effective suggestions be made to pa- 
tients under treatment for disease, phy- 
sical, mental and moral? Therefore, 
we no longer practice hypnotism, but 
suggestion. 



CHAPTER TWO. 

THE LAW. 
i. The Law Stated. 

HpHE law of suggestion is the law of 
iteration, i. e. repetition of a par- 
ticular suggestion to a subject when in 
the suggestible state. The force and 
effect of suggestion is elicited by this 
regular and persistent iteration of the 
causative idea in the mind of the pa- 
tient. The rationale of its action is 
this :— ITERATION PRODUCES A 
TRACT OR LINE OF LEAST RE- 
SISTANCE IN CONSCIOUSNESS 
WHICH FUNCTIONS, WHEN IT 
FUNCTIONS AT ALL, ALONG 
THIS VERY LINE. 

This line in consciousness is like a 
crease in a card made by folding it 
once, which tends to fold along the 

14 



THE LAW. 15 

line of this very crease when it folds 
(or functions) at all. 

That forces act along the line of 
least resistance is one of the great 
fundamental laws of matter, a fact 
which I need not pause here to prove, 
inasmuch as any standard work on phy- 
sics contains the all-compelling demon- 
stration. The point here is that this 
great law is not only a law of matter 
but also a law of mind. 

By virtue of this law, which reigns 
in mind as well as in matter, these two 
discreet and apparently opposite en- 
tities are brought into harmony, and 
are found to be mutually and inex- 
tricably bound up in the same bundle 
of life — <a profound and sublime fact 
which we might readily infer also 
from another great and universal truth, 
namely, that mind never does and 
never has manifested apart from mat- 
ter. (See the author's work "Twin 
Demons" for amplification of this re- 
markable fact.) And if this is so, then 
it follows that the fundamental laws 
of the one are the fundamental laws 



16 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

of the other. The laws of either can- 
not be antagonistic to the other and 
yet both exist in vital harmony, as they 
always do and always have done. 

The law of Iteration is not an arbi- 
trary, artificial human enactment. It 
is not a trick or statute of hypnotists. 
On the contrary, it is rooted in the 
very nature of the human mind. Man 
did not put it there ; he simply finds 
it there, and today is consciously and 
wisely employing it for human better- 
ment. 

It obtains, therefore, wherever mind 
is at work. Mankind has resorted to 
and used it instinctively. 

2. The Law Illustrated. 

For illustration let us boldly and yet 
reverently glance at man's highest in- 
terest. Observe its presence and power 
in the Religious World, i. e., in cultus 
and the ceremonies of worship. For 
example, all the orthodox Christian 
churches repeat the "Apostles' Creed" 
in divine service. The repetition, under 
such solemn surroundings, of the 



THE LAW. 17 

statements contained in the Creed fixes 
them not only in memory but also in 
the real motive zone of human con- 
sciousness. Rational doubt of them 
weakens and assent to them strength- 
ens every time the worshipper (sub- 
ject) says them to himself, and espe- 
cially when he repeats them in con- 
cert with others. This procedure, ob- 
serve, combines suggestion (from oth- t 
ers) with auto-suggestion (from self) 
in a strong, harmonious and effective 
merger. This part of the "service" is 
expressly intended by the clergy and 
ecclesiastical bodies who arrange and 
ordain it not only to keep the members 
intellectually true to the denomina- 
tional standard, but also to strengthen 
their vital faith in it and in the relig- 
ious facts or verities therein era- 
braced'. These purposes are directly 
and surely realized as they could not 
be were the law of Iteration ignored. 
Hence, will we or nil we, the use of 
the Creed in public worship is not a 
mere empty formality, but a real psy- 
chological force and spiritual exercise. 



18 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

Let us look somewhat deeper. The 
force of Iteration is seen in religion 
in the service of the "Holy Commun- 
ion." In many denominations after 
the communicants have partaken of 
the elements of bread and wine the 
minister solemnly pronounces the fol- 
lowing benediction upon minds that 
are at that moment in a receptive and 
believing condition : "May the holy 
communion of the body and blood of 
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 
keep and preserve you, each one, in 
body, soul and spirit, unto everlasting 
life." Again and again, throughout the 
years, this inspiring thought of indi- 
vidual survival after death, of everlast- 
ing life, is solemnly driven home to 
the center of consciousness, hope in it 
is brightened, faith in it deepened, an- 
ticipation heightened, and this grow- 
ing belief, faith and hope held in mind 
and rooting too in the subliminal con- 
sciousness, SETS IN MOTION 
FORCES WHICH TEND TO 
REALIZE AND BRING TO PASS 
THE VERY THING BELIEVED 



THE LAW. 19 

IN. (See foot-note.) Hence, the 
repetition of the Communion Benedic- 
tion is not a mere ceremonial formula, 
but a "suggestion" replete with psy- 
chological and spiritual force, accord- 
ing to the laws of mind and soul which 
the Creator Himself has implanted in 
human nature. 

Iteration does not determine the 
truth of any statement made to a sub- 
ject or to anyone else. Other consid- 
erations and proceedings determine 
that. But Iteration does make the 
statement or idea effective as a forma- 
tive (or, if evil, a de-formative) force 
in human life. This law of Iteration is 
employed consciously or unconsciously 
both by the moral and immoral minds 
of humanity. 

By the force of this law the bad are 
"converted" and the good seduced. A 
revival or protracted meeting drives 
home to consciousness in a more or 



Note — I must rest content with this bare 
statement here and refer the student to the 
forthcoming work on "The Psychology of 
Faith" for a full discussion of this creative 
power of faith. 



20 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

less suggestible state night after night, 
the same thought, the same suggestion, 
though couched in different language, 
illumined by different illustrations, and 
based upon different "texts." On the 
contrary the moral are seduced by the 
repeated suggestion of "sin," i. e., by 
iterated temptation. Pope strikes the 
keynote when he says : 

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien 
As to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace. 

i By the force of Iteration adminis- 
tered to others in the form of sugges- 
tion, or to one's self in the form of 
auto-suggestion, intellectual errors as 
well as moral obliquities have been es- 
tablished for long periods in the minds 
of men. By talking to one's self and 
repeating the "talk/' humanity has 
actually and often induced itself to be- 
lieve things that we now recognize as 
actual absurdities. This but all the 
more clearly demonstrates the power 
of the law. Take for example the idea 
that the world was flat, that it was a 



THE LAW. 21 

big thing and that the sun revolved 
around it. This most, if not all the 
world actually believed, so strongly 
believed in fact that they were ready 
to fight and die, if need be, for their 
convictions along these lines. Ready 
to die for ideas that are utterly false. 
We cannot trifle with the great laws 
of mind. Mind is as fully under law 
as matter. We must have a care, for 
instance, what we say to ourselves as 
well as what we allow others to say to 
us. The Prodigal said to himself, "I 
will arise and go away from my fa- 
ther." He was a fool, as he found out 
later to his sorrow. But then he said, 
"1 will arise and go* back to my father," 
He was wise. We have no more moral 
right to say evil things to ourselves 
than we have to say them to others. 
You can seduce yourself as well as se- 
duce your neighbor. Neither have wq 
any more moral right to listen to evil 
thoughts emanating from ourselves 
than to listen to similar thoughts when 
they emanate from others. Say depress- 
ing, discouraging and degenerate 



22 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

things to yourself and you will expe- 
rience physical, mental and spiritual 
katabolism. Say cheerful, hopeful and 
uplifting things to yourself and you 
will experience physical, mental and 
spiritual anabolism. Whenever you de- 
feat "the devil/' "angels" always come 
and minister unto you. 

The force of this law is also very 
apparent in the business world. Riding 
in the train we see the advertisement 
"Uneeda Biscuit." Two miles farther 
on we see it again, "Uneeda Biscuit." 
In the newspaper it stares us in the 
face, "Uneeda Biscuit." At the street 
corner it meets us, "Uneeda Biscuit." 
Again and yet again "Uneeda Biscuit" 
is driven into your consciousness until 
you capitulate and really begin to think 
"Uneeda Biscuit." You buy a box! 

Last summer I was guest in a cer- 
tain Illinois city hotel. The first time 
I went up to my room in the elevator 
the boy said, "Have your pants pressed. 
Fifty cents." I looked at the articles 
specified and said, "No." Coming 
down he said as pleasantly as ever. 



THE LAW. 23 

"Have your pants pressed. Fifty 
cents." I smiled. Going up four hours 
later he said, "Have your pants 
pressed, only fifty cents." I thereupon 
somewhat critically examined ( !) my 
pantaloons and observed that they 
were a little baggy at the knees and 
— decided to have them pressed! 

At the fair or carousel^ the man 
cries. — "Have a ride! take a ridel 
Everybody rides ! Ride ! R-i-d-e ! Ride ! 
Have a ride ! take a ride V — And you 
take one, or else resist a very strong 
temptation to do so. The inde- 
pendent and self-assertive person will 
say various things to himself when 
he at last decides to take a ride 
as justification for so doing and to 
make himself feel that he does it of 
his own initiative, such as that he 
really wanted the pleasure of a ride 
all along, or that it is well to have a 
variety of experiences in life, or that 
everybody rides in Rome and he might 
as well do as the Romans do when 
in Rome, &c, &c. But all the same 
the motive force within him is the 



24 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

effect of the repeated suggestion — a 
fact the "independent" person does not 
like to admit, even to himself. 

Have you ever observed the effect 
of the "calls" of the newspaper boys 
in railroad depots and trains? Many 
people will buy only on his second or 
third round — which is just time 
enough for the reiterated calls of the 
first round to take effect. 

The greatest psychology on earth 
states this law of iteration very clearly 
when the prophet, in order to move 
the most obstinate and "stiff-necked" 
people on earth, reports that he had 
to resort to "Precept upon precept, 
precept upon precept; line upon line, 
line upon line; here a little, there a 
little." 

From these illustrations the reader 
will have no difficulty in discovering 
the presence and power of this lav> 
. in the realms of education, the arts, 
social customs, and in fact every- 
where where mind is at work. Dr. 
Alfred Binet especially emphasizes the 
necessity of studying this portion of 



THE LAW. 25 

human nature on the part of the phi- 
losopher, lawyer, preacher, teacher 
and parent. 

"When we apply the lessons of this 
work of Binet," writes F. van Eeden, 
"to the great social, political and re- 
ligious movements of the masses, their 
significance becomes enormous, and 
the necessity of widespread study of 
them most evident." 

A teacher by dint of his "authority" 
(ex cathedra) w$ll stamp upon ,his 
young pupil any artificial belief or 
unnatural creed; a judge, lawyer or, 
sheriff, by a "sweating process/' sub- . 
tie and persuasive questioning, will 
entrap an innocent but suggestible 
person to his doom, &c. 

The following account of an exper- 
iment in Iteration was given me quite 
recently by the sheriff himself who 
made it, a gentleman whose name 
must, for good reasons, be withheld: 

"I held the office of sheriff here foi 
four consecutive years. One day I ar- 
rested a man by the name of H 1. 

I was convinced that he belonged to 



26 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

a gang of thieves. He was a good- 
natured sort of a fellow and one whom 
I imagined would be easily influ- 
enced by the people around him. At 
the time I speak of there were in my 
residence in the jail besides myself 
my wife, my son, aged twenty, and 
a detective. We all thought we could 
so work upon the imagination of 
H as to induce him to tell what- 
ever he really knew about certain 
thefts that had taken place. On the 
morning when we made the experi- 
ment I unlocked the doors and let 
the prisoners out into the corridor 
greeting each one with 'good morn- 
ing' as they came forth, and asking 
how they felt. When H — — came I 
greeted him as usual and said, 'How 
are you feeling this morning?' 'First 
rate/ he replied, 'never felt better in 
my life.' I looked amazed and step- 
ping back a little said, 'What! you 
do?' 'Yes, sir; never felt better in my 
life.' 'If you do, your looks belie 
your feelings,' said I, 'for you look as 
if you had been sick a month,' and I 



THE LAW. 27 

turned to the other fellows and asked 
them if it was not so. They replied 
in the affirmative. I then told him if 
he was not sick he soon would be. 
He laughingly replied, 'I guess not.' 
I left, and in a few minutes the de- 
tective came to him and went through 
the same conversation I had with him. 

H replied, That's just what the 

sheriff said.' Soon my wife came to 
hand him his breakfast through an 
opening in the wall for that purpose; 
when he came for his she said, 'H — ■ — ; 
you are looking very badly. You must 
be careful or you will be sick; if you 
get to feeling worse let me know and 
I will send for a doctor.' Before noon 
we had two doctors, and before night, 
an old lady who used to come and 
pray with the prisoners was sent for. 
and also his wife. He was sick for 
several days; thought he was going 
to die; made confession of what he 
knew about the thefts, and arrange- 
ments for settlement of his property. 
When I first went into the jail the 
man did not look sick, and really was 
not sick/' 



28 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

Glance a moment in another direc- 
tion. The mysterious power of en- 
vironment upon us all is illumined by 
this law; for is not this force but iter- 
■ ation of the same suggestions (scenes- 
people, ideas, &c) year after year 
commencing far back in the plastic pe- 
riod of infancy, yea, in the prenatal 
months of foetal life? The equally. 
or more mysterious power of heredity 
is similarly illumined if not fully and 
comprehensively explained. Do not 
throw this idea into your intellectual 
waste-paper basket by an impatient 
and imperious wave of the will before 
you carefully study it in this connec- 
tion, and by it measure all cases of 
so-called "striking heredity influence" 
direct as well as atavistic. I do not, 
of course, refer to disease ; but to pe- 
culiarities in other directions that are 
usually ascribed to so-called atavistic 
heredity. 

3. The Law Applied. 

To apply this law in the art or prac- 
tice of suggestive therapeutics or men- 



THE LAW. 29 

tal treatment, have your subject as 
passive as possible, i. e., in the 
suggestible state. (See chapter on 
"Miethods.") Select the right and 
needful suggestion, and then, with 
masterful earnestness and full 
confidence in the law on your part 
drive it home to consciousness by reg- 
ular treatments, using the same sug- 
gestion every time; and you will find, 
to your delight and the benefit of your 
subject, that the reaction intended is 
equal to the quality and quantity of 
the action administered. 

If the case is very peculiar, think 
out the suggestion beforehand very 
carefully, and when your subject is in 
the suggestible condition, request him 
to shut his eyes and then read it to 
him impressively, as M. de Rochas 
used to do and with such happy re- 
sults. 



CHAPTER THREE. 

SPECULATIVE. 

How This Law Is Supposed to Act 

/^NE of the most eminent neurolo- 
gists, Brown-Sequard, has demon- 
strated that two or more brain centers 
involved in mental functioning cannot 
be in an equally conscious state at the 
same time. Continuous stimulation of 
one center involves diminished activ- 
ity of others, entailing their tempo- 
rary inhibition. 

This seems to be proved by the or- 
dinary phenomena of attention. When 
reading an interesting book or listen- 
ing to an opera our faculties are great- 
ly exerted on that one particular thing 
so that other impressions, such 
noise in the street, are not regibLered 
or noticed. Even bodily pain may be 
forgotten or greatly minimized when 
the attention is thus absorbed. 

30 



SPECULATIVE. 31 

Thus the one cortical center be- 
comes isolated from the rest; in othei 
words, the subject has been reduced 
from a state of "poly-i'deism" to a state 
of "mono-ideism." 

According to this theory, then, sug- 
gestion's power consists in the fact 
that the mind is centered on only one 
idea; all distractions are carefully ex- 
cluded or cut off, and much greater 
power is therefore manifested along 
the line of that one idea than when 
the mind is attending to many stimuli 
simultaneously or in rapid succession 
as it is doing in ordinary waking mo- 
ments. Inhibition of all ideas but one 
or two great intensifies the one or 
two. 

The other theory claims that the 
subliminal or secondary consciousness 
of the subject is reached by the sug- 
t$r ' ns given him; that this sublim- 
ing .unsciousness controls the vital 
processes of organic life, the action of 
the vital organs; that it believes all 
it hears and at once commences to do 
it; whether it be to re-establish the 



32 LAW OF SUGGESTION". 

healthy rhythm of the vital organs, to 
eliminate errors from the intellect and 
understanding, to drive out obsessing 
fears from the emotional life, or to 
correct unhealthy and immoral habits. 
The author does not commit himself 
to either theory, one referring to the 
supraliminal mind and the other to the 
subliminal. The student is at liberty 
to form his own theory. 

But the great and saving fact re- 
mains that suggestion, when properly 
applied, is potent for good, and this 
not in a narrow and restricted but in 
a wide and unlimited field of human 
interests that are distinctly vital i'n 
their far-reaching importance. It acts 
because an idea has a tendency to 
generate its actuality; but how it acts 
is left for each one to reason out for 
himself, and there are almost as many 
theories of this "how" as there are 
demonstrators of the fact. 



CHAPTER FOUR, 

METHODS. 

QUBJECTS for treatment naturally 
fall into three classes, those who 
are hard to lead into the suggestible 
condition, those who are easy, and 
those who stand between the two ex- 
tremes. They have been called, re- 
spectively, "Non-Susceptibles," "Hyp- 
notic Somnambules" and "Physical 
Subjects." 

There are no objective criteria or 
external signs for discriminating be* 
tween these three classes at a glance. 
Delicacy of skin and fineness of hair 
were at one time supposed to mark 
the "sensitives." Experiment only 
however, will develop the differences 
existing in different persons in respect 
of suggestibility. 



34 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

A fairly good test of suggestibility; 
is the old "drawing pass." Stand in 
front of your subject as he stands be- 
fore you, fold your hands with palms 
together, and make a drawing pass to- 
wards yourself. If he leans forward 
or falls toward you, he is suggestible* 
There is nothing "occult" about this 
simple manoeuvre; for the idea that 
you wish him to follow the motion of 
your hands is very plain, and the eas- 
ily moved will yield to this idea or 
wish of yours, knowing what is ex- 
pected of them, whilst the independent 
and hard-to-move will not, although 
they may feel a tendency to yield. 
Ask them, and judge accordingly. 

The above is merely a test for sug- 
gestibility ; it is not a method for pro- 
ducing it. 

Suggestibility is a mental condition 
in which a suggestion (thought or 
idea) has an exaggerated effect. This 
definition is according to Bernheim, 
and we agree therewith. Dr. Parkyn 
says that this condition is present the 



ADMINISTERING SUGGESTION. 35 

moment a subject's attention is gained. 
How, then, shall we wean his atten- 
tion from other things and rivet it 
upon the one desired? This is our 
present problem, and here we present 
a brief resume of the numerous meth- 
ods that have been employed: — ■ 

Charcot's method, which was used 
at the Saltpetriere in France, was 
sudden, startling, shocking, as where 
the sudden sound of a Chinese gong, 
or a bright light suddenly thrown into 
the eyes would throw many of the sub- 
jects and hystero-epileptics into a 
quasi-cataleptic state. Many persons, 
I presume, have been "thunderstruck/' 
i. e., startled, shocked, paralyzed, ren- 
dered incapable of movement by some 
sudden nervous shock that immobi- 
lizes the subject thereof. Valuable re- 
sults for psychology have been ob- 
tained' by Charcot's method ; but it. was 
too violent entirely for regular practice 
and created a sentiment against hyp- 
notism (and even against suggestion, 
since people confound the two which 
has not entirely died out today. 



36 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

Liebault's methods, depending upon 
mild measures and monotonous in- 
stead of massive stimulation, are the 
methods practiced by the School of 
Nancy and generally obtaining today. 
All these various methods will b<* 
clearly understood when the reader re- 
members that they all have but one 
end in view, and that is to TIRE THE 
SENSES of the subject, so that he 
naturally feels a desire to rest, to sleep, 
to submit, to acquiesce. All violent 
hypnogenetic processes act by nervous 
shock ; all mild hypnogenetic processes 
act by nervous fatigue. Such is the 
physiology of suggestion. It is very 
simple ; nothing occult about it what- 
ever. Here are some of the approved 
methods for gently tiring the senses : 
— The steady human gaze ; gazing into 
a clear crystal or glass ball, or clea? 
bottle of water with a candle or lamp 
on the opposite side of it; watching 
the hypno-metronome as it swings 
backward and forward with the gaze 
riveted upon the bright spot on the 
ball and the hearing upon the monot- 



ADMINISTERING SUGGESTION. 37 

onous click-click-click of the. pen- 
dulum ; and a hundred and one other 
methods which can be found listed in 
Dr. Parkyn's larger work on the sub- 
ject. Any method, any device almost, 
will succeed with a susceptible subject 
who knows what is expected of him. 
Here follow four methods in detail: 

• The Braid Method, so-called from 
the fact that D(r. Braid invented and 
employed it. It produces the celebrated 
"upward and inward squint" by fixa- 
tion of the gaze upon a point held 
above and between the eyes, which 
causes a peculiar sense of fatigue by 
reason of the strain imposed upon the 
two internal recti muscles. Dr. 
Quackenbos employs the method 
thus: "I place my patient on a couch 
and make him look steadily at the red 
carnelian fastened on the end of this 
lead pencil. I hold the pencil two or 
three inches in front of his eyes and 
enough above so that he has to strain 
his eyes upward' to see it. Now, these 
are the results. — The eyes have to be 
crossed because the carnelian is so 



38 LAW OP SUGGESTION. 

near; this crossing and the effort to 
keep the eyes turned up, brings a se« 
vere strain on the adjusting muscles. 
The red color of the carnelian is also 
irritating to the retina, and these two 
sources of fatigue, muscular and nerv- 
ous, finally overcome the patient; his 
eyelids gradually close, and he drops 
into a lethargic state, like a heavy 
sleep. Along with this strain upon the 
eyes I use a gentle stroking of the pa- 
tient's limbs. This stroking leads to 
the suggestible state by a soothing of 
the peripheral nerves — just the oppo- 
site effect from that used upon the 
eyes." The suggestions are given 
when the patient falls into this sleepy 
condition. 

The Flower Method, used and de- 
scribed by S. Flower, is as follows: 
"Make your patient comfortable upon 
a couch, and then give him the follow- 
ing directions: — "Do exactly as I tell 
you to do. I shall put you to sleep 
by counting certain numbers aloud 
and as I count you are to open your 
eyes and close them again. Now close 



ADMINISTERING SUGGESTION. 39 

your eyes and keep them closed until 
I begin to count. Then when I count 
'one' open them for a second and look 
at me and then close them again: 
When I count 'two' open them for a 
second and close them again, etc. 
Then proceed quietly to count from 
one to twenty, allowing a pause of 
five seconds between each count. 
After reaching twenty go back to one 
again and count again from one to 
twenty, allowing a pause of ten sec- 
onds between each count. After reach- 
ing twenty go back to one and this 
time allow a pause of fifteen seconds 
between each count. I have never 
found it necessary to continue this 
method longer than the third round." 
Then give the suggestions. 

Method for Refractives. — It would 
be a great mistake to suppose that be- 
cause one method will not apparently 
affect a patient therefore that patient 
cannot be affected by any other 
method. Disposition, temperament, 
temporary mood have something to dc 
with modifying the success of any 



40 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

method. Moreover, there is a class of 
individuals who pride themselves on 
the idea that no one on earth can 
hypnotize them. The following is a 
good method to impress a refractive 
or heady person such as this : — Say 
nothing to him of sleep or hypnosis 
but state that you wish to test the 
power of his own will and show him- 
self how strong his will is. Tell him 
to close his right hand into a tight 
fist. Place your hands around it 
pressing it still more tightly together. 
Assure him that if he is able to con- 
centrate his whole will power on the 
thought that he cannot open his own 
hand, that very fact will appear; but 
that if his will is weak, he will not 
be able to control his own hand. When 
you see he has taken hold of this idea 
(or the idea of him), say, "It is fast 
You cannot open it. Try/' This re- 
sult will actually be secured in pretty 
nearly fifty per cent of the cases of 
this type. If he struggles in his 
effort to get his hand open and finds 
it in the power of his own will, then 



ADMINISTERING SUGGESTION. 41 

assure him he can do in other lines 
with that same power what he has 
accomplished in this, and so introduce 
the line of treatment or improvement 
you desire in his particular case. 

Dr. Parkyn's Method. — All things 
considered and for an all-around treat- 
ment I believe this method is one of 
the best, if not the best. "Place the 
patient in a recumbent position," says 
the doctor, "and see that he is per- 
fectly comfortable. Be sure that his 
clothing is not too tight and that his 
boots are not pinching. Many of us 
go around all day with something 
which is productive of discomfort 
without having our attention drawn 
directly to the cause of it. When try- 
ing to sleep, however, we are very apt 
to discover the source of the annoy- 
ance. To guard against such proba- 
bilities, then, I repeat — 'see that your 
patient is comfortable. This insures 
the inactivity of the sense of touch. 
If the patient is not eating anything 
and the air in the room is fresh, he 
is not conscious of the reception of 



43 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

impressions through the senses of 
taste and smell. Next close the pa- 
tient's eyes and let him rest in silence 
for a few moments. In this condition 
his expectant attention is aroused and 
he wonders what is going to happen 
next. Then begin stroking gently over 
the body with both hands, commenc- 
ing at the head and stroking down to 
the feet ; use a very light touch — just 
enough to let the patient know you 
are there. The circulation follows the 
attention, and by touching him firsl 
on the head very lightly, then on the 
shoulders, and so on down the body 
the tendency is for the circulation to 
be drawn from the head. Certain it 
is, that if this is kept up for a few 
moments the majority of patients ex- 
perience a sensation of drowsiness. 
Of course the relaxation of the mus- 
cles also favors the reduction of the 
blood supply to the brain. Having 
spent a few moments gently stroking 
the patient, begin the verbal sugges- 
tion, and keep repeating the ideas 
you desire to impress upon his mind. 



ADMINISTERING SUGGESTION. 43 

The highest degree of suggestibility 
which it is possible to induce in any 
individual is present the instant his at- 
tention is concentrated on the sugges- 
tions he is receiving. The method is 
very simple; but is all that is neces- 
sary." 

There are no sensational or "occult" 
features about this whatever. It must 
not be imagined that because Dr. 
Parkyn and others stroke their pa- 
tients that they believe in the old' 
Mesmeric "fluid/" As said before, the 
theories of magnetic force, odylic 
force, fluidic effluence, or substantial 
emanations of any kind have been 
abandoned. There may be such forces 
in Nature and in the human body as 
a part of Nature; we are not by any 
means prepared to deny this ; indeed 
the experiments of Reichenbach, Den- 
ton, Buchanan, Istrate, Baraduc, de 
Rochas and others, and the discovery 
of radiant matter, the X-ray, the (dis- 
puted) N-ray, the invisible actinic 
range of the spectrum above the violet 



V 



44 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

ray, &c, combine to render a categor- 
ical denial a rash proceeding indeed; 
but these invisible radiations of matter 
are not needed for the production of 
suggestive phenomena. 
t There is no great difference be- 
tween the normal and the suggestible 
states, the only difference lying in the 
fact that in the suggestible state there 
is a temporary removal of motives or 
ideas tending to counteract the sug- 
gestion ; in other words, there is a 
state of mono-ideism, however brought 
about. All methods have one thing in 
common, namely, the diversion of at- 
tention from the insistency of external 
surroundings, as Dr. Walter Leaf puts 
it, and the concentration of it upon 
the thing immediately before con- 
sciousness. 

Natural sleep at night has frequent- 
ly been chosen as a favorable time to 
give treatment, especially to children 
for the correction of bad habits. The 
method to be pursued is this: — Before 
the child goes to bed the mother is 



ADMINISTERING SUGGESTION. 45 

to say, "1 shall come and talk to you 
to-night while you are asleep, and you 
will answer me without waking. You 
will hear me and answer me and un- 
derstand what I say, but you will not 
wake up." At the appointed hour she 
comes and talks distinctly but in a 
low tone: — "This is mother talking to 
you. Sleep quietly. You can speak to 
me while you sleep. You are perfectly 
comfortable and quiet. Sleep sound. 
You hear me talking to you. You 
hear me. Say 'yes/ Now I touch 
your lips with my ringer, and you can 
speak. Say 'yes/ " Should the child 
stir uneasily and open her eyes, the 
mother must not relinquish her at- 
tempt, but close the eyelids with her 
fingers, and suggest, "Sleeping quiet- 
ly. Nothing will disturb you. You 
can hear me. You will remember 
what I say to you. You do not like 
to be untidy (or disobedient, or idle, 
untruthful, or whatever the fault may 
be). You will not wish to be untidy. 
It will make you so happy to be tidy. 



46 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

You will have lots of fun being tidy. 
You will be so happy to-morrow/' 
(See foot-note.) 

Force Methods— Dr. W. MfcDowell 
states that an overseer in Virginia 
used to wager he could hypnotize any- 
body. To do this he would have the 
man seized by assistants and thrown 
upon his back on the barn floor, where 
he was held,, while the operator, by a 
steady and gentle patting on the epi- 
gastric region (solar plexus) would 
put him to sleep. This parallels some 
of the measures of Dr. Esdaile in 
India. 

There are other force-methods con- 
sisting in certain artful or technical 
uses of morphia, ether, kelene, somno- 
forme, &c, which are employed upon 
cases of incorrigibility, simulation, ob- 



NOTE — To break a bad habit one must not 
seek to drive out the knowledge or memory 
of it. That cannot be done except with great 
danger to health, mind and even personality. 
But the attractiveness of the knowledge or 
memory may be destroyed, and with it goes 
the control it exercised over habit and life. 
Let the reader underscore this point, for it is 
very important. 



ADMINISTERING SUGGESTION. 47 

stinate insomnias, sexual perverts and 
criminals, but inasmuch as this is a 
field open only to specialists and med- 
ical practitioners, the reader will read- 
ily pardon the omission of any fur- 
ther particulars from a popular treat- 
ise such as this. 

In concluding this chapter let me 
kindly but earnestly say that the vast 
majority of laymen, who hold that 
there is something uncanny in the 
practice and methods of suggestion 
whereby the operator gains a mysti- 
cal or occult influence over the sub- 
ject, should abandon that idea as an- 
tiquated and groundless. All intelli- 
gent people to-day should recognize 
that suggestion has been stripped of 
the supernatural and abnormal (and 
even diabolical — for some frightened 
people actually thought and taught it 
was "of the devil" !) and has found its 
permanent place and function as one 
pf Nature's therapeutic agencies anc 
beneficent forces when properly un- 
derstood and applied. 



CHAPTER FIVE. 

INDIRECT SUGGESTION. 

i. Defined. 

T NDIRECT suggestion is a method 
by which the same thought con- 
tained in the suggestion directly ad- 
ministered to a subject is driven home 
to his consciousness at an hour and 
from a source that is more or less un- 
expected by him. 

Indirect suggestion is a powerful 
auxiliary in augmenting the force of 
direct suggestion. It carries this 
effect with it simply because the sub- 
ject more readily accepts and more 
V hole-heartedly believes it ; in other 
words, it strikes him in a more sug- 
gestible condition, and so unexpected- 
ly that he cannot well gainsay or op- 
pose it. 

I have found Indirect Suggestion so 

48 



INDIRECT SUGGESTION. 49 

potent for good when artfully and 
wisely used, and so powerful for evil 
when ignorantly employed, that I 
have often been tempted to dignify 
it with the title of "The Second Law 
of Suggestion." 

2. Illustrated. 

Take a familiar example or two 
from the common experiences of life 
where we see this law embedded. 
When the Committee Chairman or 
friends come forward after your pub- 
lic address (or platform lecture) and 
congratulate you personally and di- 
rectly, you are always prone to dis- 
count their flattering remarks because 
you are harassed with doubts as tc 
their genuine earnestness and sincer- 
ity; you suspect they do it out of 
mere courtesy and the friendly ex- 
igencies of the occasion. But after- 
wards, when you mingle incognito 
with the people as they leave the hall 
or on the street and overhear them 
exchanging with each other such re- 
marks as "Wasn't that a fine effort " 



50 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

"strong/' "something new," &c, you 
find yourself more ready to accept 
and believe, you are really reached, 
and in the light of what you indi- 
rectly overhear, more ready to credit 
the direct congratulations of the 
chairman and his friends. Indirect 
suggestion has augmented the force 
of direct suggestion. 

In Diplomacy and Business. 

Men are as much influenced in busi- 
ness deals by indirect "tips" of outsid- 
ers, or persons whom they take to be 
outsiders, as by the direct arguments 
and appeals of official or recognized 
agents. Thousands of business men 
are looking into this and devising ways 
and means of applying the principle. 

> In Social Relations. 

All of us are as quickly reached and 
as deeply moved by what we read indi- 
rectly between the lines of a letter or 
hear between the words of a conversa- 
tion as by the lines and words them- 
selves. 



INDIRECT SUGGESTION. 51 

In Religion. 

Why do not the earnest and re- 
peated efforts of the clergy, individual 
and carefully organized efforts, to 
"convert" men and young men meet 
with more success? Because the direct 
suggestions from the pulpit concerning 
the power of the Gospel and of faith 
and the joy of believers in Jesus Christ 
are not supplemented by the indirect 
suggestions of the people in the pews. 
If men and young men of the world 
are present at the services, as they 
leave the church they seldom overhear 
the people saying to one another 
"That sermon was so helpful," "so 
true," "what joy we have in Jesus," 
etc. ; but more commonly they over- 
hear such remarks as "Sermon too 
long," "dull," "nothing new," "same 
old song," etc., and even worse criti- 
cisms than these. The main cause of 
the non-effectiveness of the repeated 
suggestions from the pulpit today is 
the fact that they do not receive the 
augmentative force emanating from 



52 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

the corroborative remarks of the 
church members. 

In Child Training. 

Indirect Suggestion is a powerful in- 
strument in training children for good 
or bad. It is mostly used ignorantly 
and hence for bad today, as the follow- 
ing incidents will show: 

W. W. Atkinson describes a typical 
case when he tells how Mr. New- 
thought visited Mrs. Quiverfull, who 
exclaims, with Gladys in the next room 
overhearing it all: 

"Oh, where's our shy little baby 
girl ? Johnny, go and bring Gladys in 
to see Mr. Newthought. You mustn't 
mind Gladys, Mr. Newthought, she's 
so shy and bashful. I have tried in 
every way to break her of it, but she 
only gets worse and worse. It's too 
bad indeed, for she's a good child, 
but has been shy and bashful from 
babyhood. She don't like strangers 
and will never make up with them. 
Just see her now, she don't want to 
come near you. Oh, it's an awful thing 



INDIRECT SUGGESTION. 53 

for a child to be so frightfully shy and 
bashful." And so on ad libitum, and 
ad infinitum, and, I may add, ad nau- 
seam! All this Gladys overhears! 
Every sentence of her mother's bris- 
tles with the words "shy and bashful." 
She believes that her mother is telling 
the truth. She sees that her mother 
really expects her to be "shy and bash- 
ful/' and so has developed from a 
somewhat sensitive child into a chron- 
ic case of "shy and bashful." . 

Take an extreme case. Belford Rus- 
sell Lawrence, the boy criminal, testi- 
fied at twelve years of age that, among 
other things, his mother had often said 
to neighbors, referring to him, 'That 
devil will hang yet." 

As a general rule children are what 
their elders expect them to be. 

As a general rule we adults are what 
our fellows expect us to be. 

If everybody, especially those to 
whom we look up, expects us to fail, 
it requires the puissance of a psycho- 
logical giant to withstand this killing 
psychic atmosphere. There is such a 



54 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

thing as unintentional mind-slaughter 
as well as man-slaughter. 

If, however, they expect us to do 
our best, that very co-operative expec- 
tation inspires and infires us to do 
it — and we succeed. There is such a 
thing as psychological life-giving — ■ 
resurrection. 

This "expectation" of our cotempo- 
raries and associates reaches us indi- 
rectly, i. e., we hear of it or overhear 
it, whereby it influences us all the 
more potently. 

YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU 
THINK YOU ARE. BUT, WHAT 
YOU THINK, YOU ARE. 

This universal expectation of their 
fellows causes the weak-minded (the 
discouraged, the sick, the nervous) to 
form the same opinion of themselves. 
They think it ; thought tends to realize 
itself in actuality ; they become it. 

It is impossible to calculate the dam- 
age done to the little ones in this way 
by their ignorant elders. Dr. Crafts 
tells of a mother who entered the of- 
fice of a judge of probate and said: 



INDIRECT SUGGESTION 55 

"Are you the judge of reprobates?" 

"I am the judge of Probate. Per- 
haps that is what you mean." 

"I spec' so. Mry husband died de- 
tested, and left me two little infidels 
and I want to be appointed their exe- 
cutioner." 

Alas! many parents perform this 
office upon their children "and know 
not what they do." Teachers, too, 
also friends when visiting the sick. 

3. Applied. 

All that is required is plan and tact 
in arranging a time when the subject 
will overhear you (or some one ap- 
pointed and prepared by you) in con- 
versation with a third party express^ 
ing the same thought in reference to 
the subject that you have on other 
occasions expressed to him directly. 

If the subject be a slothful student 
at school whom you wish to reach and 
awaken, watch your chance, and when 
you see him approaching to pass near 
you when you are engaged in conver- 
sation with some one else, let him 



56 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

overhear you remark to this third 
party : 

"John is doing better lately. He 
has a strong will, and when he makes 
up his mind he'll surprise us all." 

If you are a professional healer, 
either drug or drugless, arrange with 
the attendants to whisper encouraging 
prognosis at the door of the sickroom 
apparently not intended for the patient 
to hear, but loud enough, nevertheless, 
to reach his ears. 

The ingenuity of parent, preacher, 
Sunday School teacher, college pro- 
fessor, business man and agent, will 
readily devise ways and means to thus 
reach any particular case in hand. The 
principle is plain ; its ethics fortified : — 
"Shrewd as serpents, harmless as 
doves." 

Follow it up, of course, with direct 
suggestion ; and then repeat the indi- 
rect, and, if possible, by a different set 
of people. 

I earnestly repeat: — There is re- 
markable power in Indirect Sugges- 
tion. Realize it. Count on it. Plan 
for it. Help the weak by it. 



CHAPTER VI. 

POSITIVE VERSUS NEGATIVE. 

A LWAYS use positive, affirmative 
suggestions. Studiously avoid nega- 
tive formularies, for they keep sug- 
gesting to the mind of the subject the 
very idea you wish him to ignore. 

A public school teacher said to a 
boy pupil whom she was punishing by 
"keeping in" after school hours^ 
"Johnny, I am going to- the store for 
a minute or two; don't put anything 
in the stove while I am gone, or you 
might burn the house down. 5 ' Result? 
Johnny had not thought of doing any- 
thing like this, but he takes the tip 
from the teacher and fires into the 
stove a hated geography and speller 
or two, some paper and a ruler. Thus 
this blundering suggestion of the 
teacher, (a) caused loss of property^ 
(b) trained the boy in disobedience 

67 



58 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

by arousing his curiosity, (c) killed 
respect for the teacher's knowledge 
because the house did not burn down, 
(d) trained the boy in secrecy, to keep 
things from the teacher and feel he 
was "smart." 

What should she have done ? Given 
the boy something definite to do, such 
as writing lines, a sum in arithmetic, 
setting the room to rights, anything 
but the negative suggestion she did 
give. 

There are only two occasions in life 
when it is logical and right to say 
"don't." 

i. When the subject (child or adult) 
does wrong once. Then to say 
"don't" teaches nothing new. 

2. When the subject is in immedi- 
ate danger of some kind. Then cry 
with excited vehemence, "Don't." The 
shock prevents the impending acci- 
dent. On all other occasions avoid 
the negative. Cultivate the habit of 
affirmative thought, and your express- 
ion will naturally also be affirmative. 

A crease in a card is really a habit, 



POSITIVE VS. NEGATIVE. 59 

i. e. the card folds every time along 
that crease, and not elsewhere. To 
cure the card of this bad habit we do 
not cry to it, "Don't fold there! don't 
fold there"! but, "Fold here! fold 
here P' at the same time we make an- 
other crease across the first or at an- 
other place in the card, and b) 
repeated folding along the new line 
the time comes when it becomes the 
line of least resistance. Now, when 
the card acts, it does the easiest thing 
for it to do, and so folds at last of it- 
self, naturally, along the new crease. 
We need no longer worry about the- 
action of the card. In other words 
the old habit has been robbed of power 
not by scolding and cursing it, but by 
persistently forming a new habit 
which has sapped the old of potency 
and so destroyed it. 

If you want a child to keep away 
from the fire, avoid the command, 
"Don't go near the fire! Don't go 
near the fire!" Every time you say 
that, don't you see? you deepen the 
thought, "Near the fire! near the 



60 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

fire!" — you keep the fire constantly 
before the child's mind. But say 
"Come over here to Papa and let us 
read this story or play this game/' 01 
anything to attract the child awa> 
from the fire without ever mentioning 
the word "fire." 

"Don't go in the saloon, John ! don' 
go in the saloon !" "In the saloon" is 
the refrain that rings in John's ears 
and the image that persistently comes 
up in his mind — the very thing his 
poor wife wanted him not to think 
about! What shall she do? Keep 
John employed or engaged elsewhere ; 
take him to other places ; have friends 
take him ; give him a Coffee and 
Cruller Club as they do in London, or 
/a tfliree-cent capsicum: soup with a 
place to drink it in and smoke, as they 
do in Chicago, and then say, "Go 
there, John ! go there !" 

An operator was treating a patient 
for indigestion and associated insom- 
nia. The patient went home and gave 
himself these negative auto-sugges- 
tions: — "TO not suffer from indiges- 
tion any more ! I'll not suffer from in- 



POSITIVE VS. NEGATIVE. 61 

digestion! I'll not stay awake at 
night! I'll not stay awake!" There 
was no improvement in his case. 
Finally he learned the truth, and there- 
after w r ith almost every mouthful he 
chewed' and every swallow of liquid 
he drank he said to himself: 

'Til digest this food, and it'll make 
me strong, well and happy. I'll sleep 
long and sound — long and sound." He 
kept repeating these happy, hopeful 
positive thoughts. Improvement set 
in the very first week after the affirma- 
tive treatment commenced. 

Once more, therefore, we insist that 
negative suggestions are wrong, illog- 
ical and confusing. You will never 
give Suggestive Therapeutics a fair 
test by using them. The fine points 
of the art must be carefully observed 
and persistently applied, with patience 
and confidence. Select the needful 
thought; cast it into the affirmative 
form of expression, and then, by itera- 
tion as well as Indirect Suggestion, 
plant it in the ego of your subject, 
whether that subject be child or adult, 
pupil or patient, saint or sinner. 



CHAPTER SEVEN. 
AUXILIARY CONDITIONS. 
i. On the Part of the Subject. 
I^XPECTANT attention must be 
aroused in the mind of the sub- 
ject, for he may gaze at an object for 
an indefinite length of time without 
developing hypnotic effects, unless he 
is expressly told that such and such 
results are to ensue. This shows the 
power of thought over function, of 
emotion over action, of one's own 
ideas over oneself, for the suggestions 
of the hypnotist must pass over and 
be transformed into auto-suggestions 
before the effect is forthcoming. 

Think of a lemon and the saliva will* 
begin to form, because that is what 
you expect. Think of a disgusting 
sight or of food that has once nau- 
seated you and you will be nauseated 
again. The writer can never think of 

62 



AUXILIARY CONDITIONS. 63 

jelly cake without some unpleasant 
and threatening qualms in the epigas- 
tric region. When a boy he ate too 
much of this article — once — but once 
for all ! Think of a situation that has 
embarrassed you and you will feel the 
blush again. Similarly, thoughts ot 
good food will make you hungry, and 
bright, happy, cheerful, healthy 
thoughts will affect you correspond- 
ingly. 

Experiment. — Hold a watch sus- 
pended from a chain at arm's length. 
Hold it still. Then will intently that 
the watch shall swing slowly in a cer- 
tain direction. By and by you will see 
it so swing. The cause of the phe- 
nomenon is unconscious muscular con- 
traction along the line of your expec- 
tation. Expectant attention is the 
physical cause. 

James J. Walsh, M. D., adjunct pro- 
fessor of medicine at the New York 
Polyclinic School for Graduates in 
Medicine and professor of Nervous 
Diseases at Fordham University says: 
— >"A century ago, when Perkins' 
Tractors were so popular, it was ex- 
actly because of the number of the 



64 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

so-called cures they had effected that 
their inventor succeeded in making a 
fortune." One reported cure stimulated 
others to expect the same thing. 
"About the same time/' continues Dr. 
Walsh, "the famous John St. John 
Long was making a powerful series 
of cures of chronic rheumatism and 
pains and aches of many kinds by 
means of his wonderful liniment. This 
remedy was thought to be so effica- 
cious that the British Government 
finally bought the secret of it from 
him, paying many thousands of 
dollars for it, in order that it might 
be given to the public and enable them 
to free themselves from most of the 
chronic ills to which flesh is heir. The 
mysterious remedy proved to be only 
a combination of turpentine and white 
of egg with some other equally fa- 
miliar substances, and, of course, just 
as soon as it lost the power that its 
mystery had commanded for it, it 
ceased to be effective." That is to 
say, people ceased to expect of it what 
they did before ; the auto-suggestion 
was gone. 



AUXILIARY CONDITIONS. 65 

"As a matter of fact," concludes Dr. 
Walsh, "most people who suffer from 
chronic ailments can be cured by al- 
most any means from which they con- 
fidently expect relief." This is high 
endorsement of psychic healing, of the 
tremendous power and extent of sug- 
gestive therapeutics. But the doctor 
is right; for "expectant attention" is 
but another name for "faith." (See 
last paragraph of this chapter.) 

A Danger. — Some people, however, 
are so anxious for (i) relief, or (2) 
miracle in their case, that they expect 
too much, and are self-deceived; they 
have no abiding reason for the "faith" 
that is in them. They are very easily 
influenced. They acquiesce too read- 
ily. They are psychological hair-trig- 
gers. We call them "somnambules." 

Dr. H. A. Parkyn has especially 
studied somnambules as a class, and 
I consider him authority on this phase 
of the question. One of them, he says 
would declare under treatment in the 
presence of the students at the clinic 
that her pain left the instant she sat 
down in the operating chair and would 
go away affirming that she was all 



66 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

right, but would come next day saying 
that the pain camie back when she 
reached the street. She had acute ar- 
ticular rheumatism. The sorrmambule 
will say that he was asleep and re- 
members nothing because the operator 
tells him so, although it is a fact that 
he really was not asleep and remem- 
bers all that was done and said. He 
simply wishes to acquiesce with the 
operator and please him. 

"We studied hundreds of these som- 
nambules," writes Dr. Parkyn, "fol- 
lowing them into their homes and 
studying their lives, and we find them 
to be a distinct and unmistakable type. 
They are always dependents and sel- 
dom, if ever, of any executive ability. 
They make good servants, but never 
successful masters. A study of this 
class gives the key to all apparently 
remarkable and mysterious effects pro- 
duced in stage hypnotism, as well as 
to the phenomena witnessed in instan- 
taneous cures, revival meetings, In- 
dian war dances, spirit control, etc." 

2. On the Part of the Operator. 

Here I wish to quote from a recent 



AUXILIARY CONDITIONS. 67 

work on "The Psychoneuroses and 
Their Moral Treatment" by Dr. Du- 
bois, professor of neurology in the 
University of Berne, and which was 
engrossed in the Literary Digest : 

"This psychotherapeutic treatment 
requires great intellectual and moral 
qualities in the physician who would 
successfully practice it. It will not 
respond to mediocrity; success de- 
pends on the worth of the practitioner. 
He need's the gifts of moral observa- 
tion and psychological analysis, au- 
thority to command confidence, per- 
suasive speech, convincing logic, a 
sense of fitness, much tact in telling 
the truth to patients without wound- 
ing their sensibilities, a calm and firm 
character, great gentleness, much pa- 
tience and perseverance, and an ardent 
faith in the effectiveness of moral 
treatment ,, 

Let us reverently place Jesus of 
Nazareth in the light of the above an- 
alysis. Hun over the points again 
with Him in mind; and then, I think 
when to His intellectual qualities we 
add His moral beauties, and then to 






68 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

that psychological sum His remark- 
able power to inspire great faith on 
the part of His subjects we will no 
longer wonder at the title which all 
creeds are willing to render Him 
"The Greatest Healer of the World's 
History." 

6 "It is imperative/' writes Dr. Hen- 
rik G. Petersen of Paris, France, "that 
the subject's belief be established, and 
here the physician's own individuality 
in all its shades, is a factor for or 
against his success. Moreover it re- 
quires moral courage and force of 
character to withstand the temptation 
of appearing wonderfully apt before 
the gaze of ignorance and curiosity, 
and by dutiful patience to renounce 
rapid successes when they are not only 
incongruous but really dangerous." 

"No sign will be given them," ex- 
claimed Jesus, resisting the popular 
demand for a show of wonders. Jesus 
never was a thaumaturgist. But He 
was a therapist of physical, mental and 
moral diseases. 

3. On the Part of Both Together. 

Mental healing, suggestive thera- 



AUXILIARY CONDITIONS. 69 

peutics, depends for its success upon 
harmony or agreement between healer 
and patient, whoever that patient may 
be. A platform of mutual confidence 
and respect must be built before the 
best results can be obtained. The 
subject must receive the word which 
the guide speaks for him. 

"According to your faith, be it unto 
you," are the words of the Master 
Healer. And He ought to know, and 
knowing, name the real source of the 
healing force. He was not deceiving, 
flattering nor trifling but meant ex- 
actly what He said. (See foot note ) 



Note — The reader must not infer, from 
this that the author attributes all the "mir- 
acles" recorded of Jesus to the force of 
faith aroused in subjects by the presence 
of His wonderful personality. There are 
miracles of His that show another law at 
work, e.g., controlling winds and waves, 
walking on water, raising the dead, multi- 
plying loaves and fishes, withering vegeta- 
tion, etc. These show the limit of the law 
of suggestion, and strongly hint at some law 
of Mind by which it affects mind-less pon- 
derables, and of which law the writer be- 
lieves He was a revelation. 



CHAPTER EIGHT. 
Its Field. 

HpHAT the field of Suggestion is as 
broad as the race may sound start- 
ling, overdrawn and exaggerated to 
the layman in this science. Neverthe- 
less that statement is literally true. 
It is not tentative, simply because 
the benefits of suggestive treatment 
have already been incontestably dem- 
onstrated in the component realms of 
the kingdom of man's constitution, 
namely, the physical, the mental, emo- 
tional and moral. Its field, therefore, 
is coextensive with man's personal- 
ity. 

First. In the Physical Realm. 

Let us at once clear this region of 
all false expectations by frankly ad- 
mitting what suggestion can not do. 
It is not a panacea. It cannot as yet 

70 



ITS FIELD. 71 

in its present stage of development, , 
cure organic lesions nor remove deep- 
seated hereditary taints. It cannot 
grow a finger on a crippled hand nor ' 
replace an arm lost in battle. It is 
not omnipotent — gross and popular , 
notions to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. It cannot cure pnuemonia, pleu- 
risy, bronchitis, peritonitis, abcess 
(cancer!), tumors, small pox, astigma- 
tism, gravel, coma (epilepsy), and or- 
ganic diseases. No miraculous cure in 
such cases need be expected. It is a sin 
against the patient and against the 
truth to promise anything of the kind. 
One thing, however, Suggestion can 
accomplish even with these and other 
pathological giants; namely, it can 
cheer up the heart of the patient and , 
develop will power and action to re- 
sist the encroachments of the lesion ; 
it can control the nervous symptoms, 
establish the habit of sleep and in- 
crease the normal power of physical 
and mental endurance. It can put up 
a good fight and prolong life. 



72 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

But, we repeat, it cannot cure the 
lesion. Let this ever be remembered. 

What can? 

These diseases, it seems, must and 
will run their natural course, until 
the pathogenetic causes are removed 
or exhausted. But we all hope that 
when man discovers the still deeper 
laws and potencies of mind in its 
sovereignty over matter even these 
monsters of terror and torture will be 
put on the run. 

Again, in surgery where profound 
anasthesia is necessary for major op- 
erations, the main reliance should be 
placed on the recognized anaesthetics 
such as somnoform, chloroform, ether, 
and others on the list. Nevertheless 
profound hypnosis has frequently been 
used instead, especially in cases 
where the administration of ether 
compound's unfavorably affected the 
heart-action. It has been successfully 
used for major operations by the 
French and German hypnotists, and 
by Drs. Davis, Bieser, Parkyn and 
others in America. It has frequently 



ITS FIELD. 73 

been used with most happy results 
in parturition by Drs. Pitzer, Matthay, 
Ritter, Paul Joire and many others 
both in Europe and America. The 
method for inducing profound or an- 
aesthetic hypnosis is scarcely needed 
in a popular treatise, and can be 
found in the more technical works on 
the subject. 

In dentistry and in minor surgical 
operations of all kinds Suggestion is 
fine and should be conscientiously 
studied by all practitioners of the sur- 
gical and healing art, for any meas- 
ure that is calculated to relieve the 
sufferings of mankind, without harm- 
ful reaction, is entitled to such study 
and attention as shall bring it within 
the foremost ranks of the grandest 
and noblest work in the whole terri- 
tory of physical therapeutics. 

When we come to functional dis- 
turbances as distinguished from or- 
ganic lesions we enter the field, par 
excellence, of Suggestive Therapeu- 
tics. Interferences in the rhythm and 
normal movement of the vital organs 



74 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

can all be cured. They are all beau- 
tifully amenable to Suggestion, their 
reduction exhibiting all the laws and 
features stated in previous chapters. 
Constipation, dysmenorrhea, amenor- 
rhea, diarrhoea, dyspepsia, incontin- 
ence of urine (in children), insomnia 
habit (not insomnia from severe pain 
or other acute causes), anaemic head- 
ache, neuralgia headache, congestive 
headache, exhaustive headache, con- 
striction of sphincter and St. Vitus' 
I>ance, and neurasthenia have all sur- 
rendered to Suggestion unconditional- 
ly, and while the following are hard 
to reach and require technical skill, 
nevertheless by stimulating nutrition 
and other processes they have been 
cured by suggestive treatment alone : 
catarrhal deafness, nasal catarrh, sick 
headache, rheumatism, locomoter 
ataxia, asthma (when unaccompanied 
with complications), and paralysis. 

For best results each and all re- 
quire special study and skill on the 
part of the operator. (See chapter 
on auxiliary conditions.) Take con- 



ITS FIELD. 75 

stipation as an example of the knowl- 
edge and skill required for best re- 
sults. The operator must understand 
the physiology of defecation, the ef- 
fect of the various peristaltic stimuli 
and the etiology of the trouble, and 
realize that, in addition to hygienic 
measures, exercise and massage, elec- 
tricity and even drugs as aids, the 
essential factor in radical cure consists 
in re-establishing the disturbed rhyth- 
mic impulses by arousing the con- 
scious psychic control of his own 
functions by the patient himself, 
which is accomplished by the law of 
iteration deeply rooting some such 
thought as this: — "You are going to 
be entirely relieved of this distressing 
trouble of constipation. From this 
time on you will acquire a daily habit 
of going to stool at a certain time, 
which you will always faithfully heed. 
To-morrow morning, just so sure as 
you have eaten your breakfast, there 
will come a feeling that your bowels 
must move. You will never post- 
pone this call of nature. You will 



76 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

attend to its demands promptly, glad- 
ly, faithfully, and your bowels will 
then certainly move comfortably every 
morning." 

Mutatis mutandis this is the treat- 
ment for all functional irregularities. 
Of course, always attend to the life- 
essentials, water, food, air. 

Functional disturbances of a severe 
nature and chronic character are fre- 
quently traceable to nervous shock, 
severe fright, terror, etc. Many cases 
are vividly and accurately described 
by Leander Edmund Whipple in his 
"Mental Healing," in Dr. Wetter- 
strand's "Hypnotism," and the general 
scientific literature on the subject. (See 
also the author's book, "Twin De- 
mons," pp. 42-56, for recent cases in 
point.) Whipple cites a case of a pa- 
tient of his who came suffering from 
an aggravated form of chills and fever. 
Medical treatment had signally failed. 
(This fact, by the way, is sufficient 
demonstration that the cause is com- 
plex-mental, and that the case requires 
suggestive treatment.) Inquiry 



ITS FIELD. 77 

brought out the interesting fact that, 
while out sailing, he had been driven 
by a storm onto a rock and worked 
for a long time in great fear. A safe 
landing was finally made. Then it 
was, i. e., when the danger was past, 
that the patient had his first chill. 
Many attacks followed. The condi- 
tion became chronic. The treatment 
consisted in erasing from his mind the 
terror caused by the original mental 
strain or shock. The memory was not 
destroyed, but the sting was taken out 
of it. 

Swellings are similarly caused, ca- 
tarrhs, muscular rheumatisms, alco- 
holism, Bright's Disease, and so forth. 
The failure of the regular schools of 
medical treatment in such cases con- 
stitutes a strong diagnostic in favor 
of the mental origin and an index to 
a favorable prognosis by suggestive 
treatment. This is especially the field 
for suggestive therapeutics, the arena 
where it has scored some of its most 
sensational victories. 

Dr. Pearsell (Billings, Mont.) and 



78 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

others have had success in treating 
Bright's Disease. 

Paralysis has succumbed to persis- 
tent treatment. Let me give a strik- 
ing and beautiful case, that of Dr. 
Washburne's son at Elkhart, Ind. 
The father thus describes it: 

"The little fellow, six years old, fell 
down stairs and struck the base of 
his skull. As a result, he became 
paralyzed on the left side, so that he 
could walk only a few steps without 
falling. One eye rolled in under his 
nose: his tongue and throat became 
so involved that his speech was almost 
unintelligible, and he could swallow 
but little food.. The pneumogastric 
nerve was evidently pressed upon by- 
some clot or tumor in the brain, for 
he coughed terribly, raising large 
amounts of blood. His sufferings, 
especially from strangulation, were 
pitiful to witness. His breathing was 
so difficult, owing to spasmodic con- 
tractions of the throat, that it could 
be heard all over the house. 

"At this point his mother and I 



ITS FIELD. 79 

called in counsel. We had Billings, 
Patrick, Lyman, King of Lake Geneva, 
and other eminent brain and nerve 
specialists. They confirmed my di- 
agnosis of a tumor or a clot in the 
brain, caused by the fall, and press- 
ing in turn upon more and more im- 
portant brain centers. No relief was 
to be expected. An operation in that 
neighborhood meant almost certain 
death. We had to look forward to a 
greater involvement of the brain cen- 
ters, probably bringing blindness, 
deafness, dumbness, feeble-minded- 
ness and death. The one favorable 
thing was that the child could not, in 
all of our opinions, last more than a 
year in his terrible condition. 

"Then it was that, during my ab- 
sence from the city, the mother put 
into operation the treatment which 
finally resulted fin his complete re- 
covery." Let us listen to the mother's 
words as she takes up the story at 
this point: 

• "One night, in utter despair, after 
helping the poor boy to fight for his 



80 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

breath hour after hour, I just prayed 
the Lord that John might die; the 
torture was too terrible. I suppose 
the dear Lord knew what I meant, 
that I wanted relief for the child so 
intensely that I was willing to give 
him up that he might find rest; and 
so he answered what I meant instead 
of what I said. For immediately af- 
ter praying I fell into a deep sleep — 
even John must have slept — for I was 
not roused, and his slightest stir al- 
ways roused me. And when I awak- 
ened in the morning the whole plan 
of treatment was clear as crystal in 
my mind. The elements of the idea 
had been there all the time, because 
I had read with my husband, and had 
seen him do wonderful things with 
suggestion. But the notion of apply- 
ing it to a case of mechanical injury 
to the brain, like John's, had never oc- 
curred to either of us. Now, how- 
ever, T remember an article by Prof. 
Elmer Gates, who said that under sug- 
gestion he had known sound brain 



ITS FIELD. 81 

and nerve cells to mlove oven and 
take the place of injured ones. 

"I began with John's breathing, be- 
cause that distressed him the most, 
and threatened many times a night 
to end his life by suffocation. So I 
made him look at a silver dollar, so 
held that it reflected the light of a 
candle straight into his eyes. Then I 
kept repeating: "Now you are go- 
ing to sleep ; but no matter how sound 
asleep you are, you will hear mam- 
ma and do as she tells you." This 
was when he went to sleep at night. 
During the day I had explained to 
him that he had two brains, an up- 
per and a lower 4 but the lower one 
was sick, but the upper one was all 
right, and that I was going to teach 
the upper one to take care of the 
lower one while he was asleep just 
as I took care of him while he slept. 
He agreed heartily and was eager for 
the new performance. 

"Well, he soon went to sleep, of 
course, and then I put my mouth to 
his ear and ordered him to breathe 



82 LAW OP SUGGESTION. 

just as I breathed. When he got out 
of time with me, I roused him by 
tapping him sharply on the shoulder. 

" 'You are forgetting/ I said, stern- 
ly. 'You are to mind Mamma, no 
matter how sound asleep you are. 
Breathe now/ 

"He was not used to sharp speech, 
and sometimes he would murmur: 

" f Are you speaking cross to me. 
Mamma?' 

" 'No, dear/ I would answer, 
'Not to you, just to your brain.' 

"Sometimes he would slip from my 
control and I have had to dash water 
in his face to rouse him, and then use 
my silver dollar and put him to sleep 
all over again. It seemed to be just 
natural sleep, sometimes very pro- 
found, just sleep, with fixed atten- 
tion. He was never cataleptic at these 
times, though once, in the day time, 
I induced this state. But I did not 
want it. My idea was to utilize nat- 
ural sleep, to keep everything as near 
the normal as possible. 

"From eight at night till two in the 



ITS FIELD. 83 

morning — at which hour he always 
grew quieter — I regulated his breath- 
ing like this, kneeling beside him, my 
mouth at his ear. I kept this up for 
two months. At the end of that time 
he was so far cured as to be perfectly 
comfortable, though his left side was 
still weaker than his right, his eyes 
were a little crossed, and he still had 
spells of terrible headache, relieved 
by a nose-bleed. From that on we 
just built up his general health, with 
no more special treatments, and our 
moving here into the country finished 
up the cure." 

In reply to a recent letter of inquiry 
Mrs. Washburne writes me as fol- 
lows: — "Before treating my son with 
Suggestion he had been given hydrio- 
dic acid for many months. We think 
it may have had a mechanical effect 
in drying up the clot or whatever that 
pressed upon his nerve centers. But 
it was so far from curing him that I 
was actually praying that he might 
die. Then the thought of how to 
treat him came to me. After that he 



84 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

had no medicine, nothing but Sugges- 
tion. He is now not only well, but 
vigorous." 

Note, she stayed up from eight or 
nine at night until two in the morn- 
ing administering suggestive treat- 
ment ! Is not that giving life to save 
life ! If other cases were treated so 
lovingly, patiently and determinedly I 
wonder what happy results would ap- 
pear ! 

This whole matter appeals especial- 
ly to our physicians. "In short/' says 
Dubois, "there ought to be more place 
given in medical studies to psychol- 
ogy." 'T don't know whether you 
recognize it or not," said Dr. Sheldon 
Leavitt to the late President Harper 
of Chicago University, "but I do know 
that medicine is dreadfully pessimistic 
in spirit." "Ah, I do know it," he 
responded earnestly, "and that spirit 
has nearly destroyed what faith I have 
had in medicine." 

Let me here remark, in answer to 
this, that there are hopeful signs of 
an awakening in the medical ranks. 



ITS MELD. 85 

I have a personal list of nearly one 
hundred practising physicians who 
employ Suggestion, direct as well as 
indirect, in their regular daily calls 
and individual treatment of patients. 
Progressive physicians simply cannot 
and dare not ignore it any longer. 

Concerning the philosophy of it all 
do not forget that the healing force 
resides within the patient himself, and 
all the operator does is to unlock the 
valves of the vital reservoirs. This 
healing force is generated by the di- 
gestion and assimilation of food and 
by fresh air in the lungs; digestion is 
assisted or retarded by states of mind ; 
mind is influenced by Suggestion; 
therefore, if one would understand this 
healing force he must have a thor- 
ough knowledge of the effects of Sug- 
gestion. 

Look once more into the deep things 
of mind and matter. Rev. Dr. S. D. 
McConnell says in his thought-provok- 
ing work on "The Evolution of Im- 
mortality/' "So far as the body is con- 
cerned, it has been created by God 



80 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

through the agency of secondary 
causes well nigh infinite. It is the 
last term in a course of evolution 
which reaches backward in time and 
downward in scale to the lowest cell 
of primordial life, if not beyond. And 
the same appears to be true of the 
mind, which begins to show its pres- 
ence in creatures far below man. The 
life of the body and the life of the 
spirit seem to have made their long 
journey together. And the relation of 
spirit and body is therefore so inti- 
mate that every thought, sensation, 
emotion, is connected with some spe- 
cific molecular movement of some por- 
tion of the cerebral or nervous sub- 
stance." 

This radical and profound connec- 
tion or union between mind and mat- 
ter is the great and fundamental basis 
for all mental healing or suggestive 
therapeutics. Simply put, it is as fol- 
lows: Suggestion influences Mind; 
and then Mind influences the Bodily 
Functions. 



ITS FIELD. 87 

Second. In the Mental and Emotional 
Realm. 

Miental abberations, irregularities 
and abnormalities of greater or less 
degree are beautifully amenable to 
suggestive treatment, such as hypo- 
chondria, melancholia, habits, biting 
finger nails, winking or blinking of 
the eyes, scratching the head (as ■<.. 
habit), drumming with the fingers or 
swinging the feet, nervousness, irrita- 
bility, excitability, hysteria, hallucina- 
tions, morbid fears, manias, various 
stages and degrees of insanity, stage 
fright, worry habit, stammering, self- 
consciousness or bashfulness, domin- 
ant ideas, erratic or unmanageable 
children, etc. 

Besides removing or correcting 
these mental negatives or undesirable 
qualities Suggestion has been happily 
employed to develop the positive or 
desirable faculties of consciousness. 
One mental faculty may be so stimu- 
lated, heightened, flushed, that con- 
sciousness is drawn or drained away 



88 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

from other faculties, which are there- 
by inhibited, cut off, silenced. 
, Nature herself exhibits for us many 
cases of exaltation of mental faculty. 
The college boy in a competitive ex- 
amination forgets his toothache until 
the examination is over; the soldier in 
the thrill of military actfon is uncon- 
scious of the bullet wound until he 
faints from, loss of blooid ; geniuses have 
become so absorbed in creative mental 
work, writing, painting, sculpturing, 
composing, making scientific experi- 
ments, etc., that all sense of time or 
hunger has been lost. 

Science watches nature, learns from 
her, copies her, reproduces her activ- 
ities. What happens spontaneously 
can be reproduced experimentally. 
The stimulation of faculty, the exalta- 
tion of mind over matter is a demon- 
strated fact of Suggestion. All along 
the history of hypnotism, from the 
early experimentors to the modern 
practitioners of the art, subjects have 
been used to exemplify this great pos- 
sibility. Hyperesthesia of the senses 



ITS FIELD. 89 

is reported by one and all — subjects 
will hear a whispered word at an al- 
most incredible distance ; they will 
find the owner of a glove among sixty 
other persons by the heightened sense 
of smell; they detect infinitesimal fla- 
vors in food, etc. 

To-day this principle is being ap- 
plied to and by artists in various lines. 
Actresses resort to suggestive treat- 
ment for increments of self-confidence 
and histrionic inspiration ; preachers 
employ it to gain freedom of expres- 
sion in the pulpit, to overcome the 
dread of Sunday, and acquire abandon- 
ment to spontaneous spiritual illum- 
ination; musicians and vocalists are 
looking into it as a check or cut-off 
for disturbing emotions and more per- 
fect monopolization of consciousness 
by the immediate ideal — all of which 
has led Dr. Davis to say, "The great 
motive power that is to-day lifting 
mankind from the shadows of the past 
up to the beautiful intellectual heights 
of the twentieth century, is Sugges- 
tion. Every beautiful thought, every 



9* LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

flight of poetic fancy, every grand 
burst of melody, every column, peri- 
style and spire of architectural splen- 
dor that reflects the sunlight, all were 
born through Suggestion." All this 
is profoundly true if we extend Sug- 
gestion to embrace not simply the 
ideas we get from our fellowmen, but 
also the images, concepts and ideas 
that stream into consciousness from 
the manifold forms and forces of Na- 
ture, one or more of which so fill and 
flush the correlated mental faculty as 
to drain , consciousness from other 
channels, hush them up there in sym- 
pathetic silence, while the favored fac- 
ulty is perceiving, like a prophet or 
seer, new splendors in Nature, Soul 
or the Over-soul. 

Dissatisfaction may be transformed 
into satisfaction, indifference into in- 
terest and vital enthusiasm, by apply- 
ing suggestion to oneself. Suppose, 
for example, you are engaged in a 
business with which you are not at 
present wholly in love, and the cir- 
cumstances of your life absolutely 



ITS FIELD. 9i 

veto a change. What then ? Are you 
to mope, and whine, and pine away? 
Are you to merely exist in darkness 
and drudgery instead of living in light 
and life? Yes, you are, if you are 
ignorant of the great laws and pos- 
sibilities of mind with which we are 
here dealing. But if you know the 
law of suggestion you can change the 
whole tenor of your feelings towards 
your business and prospects. You can 
suggest yourself into a mental atti- 
tude of devotion and enthusiasm for 
your work. You can say to yourself, 
"This is the very best thing I can do 
now. The best deserves my best and 
shall have it. I will enthusiastically 
study my immediate situation and en- 
vironment and open up new lines of 
related interests. There is always 
something to learn everywhere, and 
learning is progress, and progress is 
joy and life. This thing I am in is 
capable of being made first class, and 
I am the chap to make it so." 

Mr. A. F. Sheldon, who has given 
this particular phase of suggestion 



92 LAW OF SUGGESTION. . 

much study, bears public evidence 
over his own signature that he has 
personally known "many salesmen, 
compelled to change from one line of 
work to another, who suggested them- 
selves into a state of love and enthu- 
siasm for their new field, although 
they had been affectionately wedded 
to the old." 

Suggestion is a safe and' sure anti- 
toxin to the poison of discouragement 
and the paralysis of ennui. 

Do not, from what has been said 
thus far, leap to the conclusion that 
Suggestion is omnipotent in the men- 
tal realm. It is not here as it is not 
in the physical realm. You cannot 
put brains into a fool's head by any 
mere suggestion to "Be wise," "be 
wise," "be wise," no matter how often 
reiterated. 

Many people, I had almost said the 
public generally, hold surprisingly ex- 
aggerated notions of the power of hyp- 
notism, wonderfully, unconsciously 
exaggerated. Take a case at Harris- 
burg, Pa. A public lecturer with 



ITS FIELD. 93 

wham I am well acquainted was lec- 
turing at the Board of Trade building 
and was exposing to the audience the 
imposing trick-methods of slate-writ- 
ing mediums. At the footlights he 
had requested a young man to thrust 
a card in between the pages of a book. 
The young man did not, of course, 
know which page he had struck, nor 
did the lecturer, nor did the audience, 
nor did any living soul on earth. 
Nevertheless, a sentence or two from 
this unknown page and the number of 
the very page were mysteriously writ- 
ten over a slate which had been 
washed in the presence of the audience 
and wrapped in an ordinary newspa- 
per. This trick the lecturer did not 
explain. As soon as a committee had 
read the slate message, a woman in 
the front of the audience excitedly 
leaped to her feet and declared to 
them that it could' all be explained by 
hypnotism, that the lecturer had hyp- 
notized the young man from the plat- 
form and had by silent hynotic sug- 
gestion guided his hand so that the 



94 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

card struck the exact page he himself 
mentally selected! 

Mirabile dictu ! ' If he had succeeded 
in an experiment like that, it would 
have been the hypnotic miracle of the 
ages and made the shades of the dead 
from Mesmer to Myers turn green with 
envy! It was all a trick, pure and 
simple ; but the woman thought it was 
an occult wonder! 

I received an earnest letter from a 
gentleman who desired me, at a dis- 
tance of 600 miles, to silently hyp- 
notize, by some occult power, his two 
brothers, the judge and the county 
court and thus compel them to change 
his father's will more to his liking! 
He offered me a thousand dollars cash 
for the job ! It is needless for me to 
say that such a thing is the wildest 
stretch of fancy. 

There are two men in the world, 
perhaps more, who think that the won- 
ders recorded in the bible concerning 
the day of Pentecost can be explained 
by hypnotism. Poloubet, in his notes 
on the International S. S. Lessons for 



ITS FIELD. 95 

1901, p. 163, says, 'Trof. Stokes makes 
use of the scientific fact of hypnotism 
which shows that it is impossible to 
assign any limits to the influence of 
the mind over the body to prove that 
such an impartat'ion of the gift of 
speech, as the speaking with tongues 
by the Apostles, is certainly a fact." 

This is surely a new explanation for 
this historic wonder. The writer de- 
cidedly disagrees, however, and has 
reasons for believing that quite anoth- 
er law was at work and that hypno- 
tism had nothing to do with it. 

Some use hypnotism to explain 
the miracle of the breaking of bread ! 
The five thousand just thought, imag- 
ined', that Jesus broke it! In other 
words, that Jesus had hypnotized the 
entire crowd! Such an idea is simply 
ridiculous. 

Auto-suggestion can similarly be 
carried too far. A woman enthusiast, 
editor and author, offers the following 
as a good auto-suggestion for daily 
practice: — "Be still and know that I 
am. God and there is none else beside 



90 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

me. Know that I am you and that 
*/ou are me. Know that body, 'soul' 
and 'God' are one, and you are that 
one, that altogether good one." To 
which Dr. Parkyn facetiously rejoins : 
"That settled it. We got a mighty 
move on us, and hastened to get under 
cover. We wrote her that we felt as- 
sured that she was, indeed, the whole 
thing; that she was us and we were 
she and we were us and us was she 
and she was IT. We freely acknowl- 
edged that she was the whole business 
from cellar to garret." 

Nay, nay; let us be sane and sound, 
and not turn a beautiful truth into an 
idol or fetish. Recognize the impor- 
tant point that suggestions or auto- 
suggestions to heighten mental faculty 
must be as sensible, believable and 
scientific as suggestions to regulate 
vital function. 

Co-operative suggestion is a power- 
ful mental stimulant of the right kind 
when applied to noble ends. A large 
hotel was on fire. The flames were 
roaring in the building and leaping 



ITS FIELD. 97 

madly from the windows. High up 
stood a young woman at a window. 
The rescue ladder reached nearly but 
not quite to it. A fireman had 
climbed almost to the limit when the 
smoke and flames forced him to pause. 
The crowd, watching breathlessly be- 
low, recognized the situation and im- 
mediately sent up a tremendous cheer. 
It nerved him for the final effort and 
he succeeded in rescuing a human life. 

That cheer was a co-operative sug- 
gestion rousing to the utmost the fac- 
ulties of courage and determination. 

The writer is of the humble opinion 
that children might be transformed or 
developed into almost anything good, 
noble, splendid, into a genius if you 
please, by the co-operative suggestion 
of their elders, wisely, enthusiastical- 
ly, persistently applied. The experi- 
ment is well worth trying. Will any- 
one join the author in organizing one? 

From all the foregoing we may fair- 
ly, honorably and honestly assert that 
the nineteenth century has brought to 
light no agent or discovery more po- 



98 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

tent for usefulness than Suggestion. 
When we more thoroughly know how 
to apply this force (directly, indirectly 
and co-operatively), then will the 
education — >(e and duco, to "draw 
out") — of the young take a mighty 
stride forward and upward, then will 
man learn that he contains within 
himself whole continents of mental 
and emotional vigor waiting to be 
opened up. 

Hail the scientific Columbus who 
shall boldly enter ! 

Third. In the Moral Realm. 

In this realm Suggestion is well 
nigh omnipotent. Its incalculable 
value will some day be universally and 
gratefully recognized. 

Moral obliquities of all kinds and of 
all degrees have been reduced and cor- 
rected, permanently and absolutely, by 
suggestive treatment. Cigarette ad- 
diction, intemperate smoking and 
chewing of tobacco, opium eating, co- 
caine and chloral habits, kleptomania, 
swearing, gambling, disobedience, wil- 
fulness, habitual falsehood in children, 



ITS FIELD. 99 

dishonesty, and other ugly negatives 
have been loosened up and eliminated 
from the soil of the soul root and 
branch, whilst the positives (such as 
the strengthening of the will, the 
awakening of courage, the develop- 
ment of self-confidence, the production 
of cheerfulness, hope and ambition, in 
short the building up of CHARAC- 
TER), have all been directly evoluted 
and established through the law and 
force of Suggestion. 

Sexual manias and perversions of 
otherwise intractable types have suc- 
cumbed to suggestive treatment. In 
cases where an appeal to self-respect, 
to conscience and to love, and where 
fear of physical or mental ruin proved 
unable to subdue, suggestive treat- 
ment was found to be a specific. Take 
one of many cases. In the Salpetriere, 
a young woman of a deplorable type 
was taken in hand bv M. Voisin. She 
was violent in demeanor and had a 
lifelong history of impurity and crime. 
Voisin kept his face close to hers and 
foHowed her roving eyes wherever 

tore. 



100 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

she moved them. In about ten 
minutes stertorous sleep ensued. The 
process was repeated many days — 
(behold the cost of salvation! Great 
reforms cannot be accomplished in a 
moment) — and gradually she became 
sane when under hypnosis, though she 
still raved when awake. In hypnosis 
she voluntarily expressed repentance 
for her past life, making confession of 
much evil. Gradually, however, she 
became able to obey in the waking 
state commands impressed upon her, 
when in the hypnotic sleep, and final- 
ly orders involving a marked change 
in her behavior. In short, she was 
completely restored, and, for a num- 
ber of years, has been a nurse in a 
Paris hospital, with conduct and char- 
acter irreproachable. 

If you wish to read of other terrible 
cases I refer you to the work-, of 
Kraft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis, Mosso 
and the schools of suggestion. 

There is "a way of escape" as the 
good book says. Let us all be grate- 
ful for it. 



ITS FIELD. 101 

Dipsomania is reducible by Sugges- 
tion. Eighty per cent of the cases 
treated have been successful. The 
twenty per cent of failures may be ex- 
plained in various ways, as, for exam- 
ple, some refused or neglected to con- 
tinue treatment long enough, or they 
failed to return after a specified' time, 
whilst others were left unguarded 
and unguided by friends during the 
post-treatment critical period when 
certain types require the help of 
friends other than f he hypnotist. 

About ten years ago I had a pro- 
found and deplorable case of cocaine 
habit consigned to my care. The vic- 
tim was the son of a prominent gen- 
tleman in Washington, D. C, a gov- 
ernment official. This unfortunate 
young man, highly and classically ed- 
ucated, had sunk from alcoholism to 
morphine, and then from morphine to 
cocaine. His father had spent several 
thousands of dollars in vain efforts co 
save him. As a last resort Sugges- 
tion was tried. I was instructed to 
bring the young man home either 



102 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

dead or a man. His father was very- 
earnest in impressing me orally, and 
by a strong letter that his son's actual 
death would be really better than the 
living death in which he seemed inex- 
tricably caught. 

In the three weeks that I treated 
the case, giving myself wholly to it 
every hour of every day and of every 
night during that period of time, I 
sought to reach and shock the center 
of his consciousness, his real ego, with 
two stern truths, first, the utter hope- 
lessness and friendlessness of his pres- 
ent condition if left to himself or to 
his boon companions (and here his 
father's letter containing the stern in- 
structions to me just rehearsed, came 
in with telling effect), and secondly, 
that I was the only real friend he had 
left and that I possessed the secret of 
the cure from his terrible vice which 
I would gladly give him if he should 
freely and earnestly consent to take it. 

At first he stormed around, cursed 
and swore, swore at his father, his 
family and at me; but under iteration 



ITS FIELD. 103 

of those two ideas and nothing more — 
reaction soon set in, and then realiza- 
tion — realization of the awful import 
of my words reflecting, as they did, 
the naked horror of his actual situa- 
tion. After three weeks' treatment he 
was committed to himself and to his 
self-made future, and I am' happy in- 
deed to relate the felicitous denou- 
ment, which sounds almost like the 
final chapter of the regulation novel, 
viz., he married, settled down to the 
practice of his chosen profession, and 
to-day is a useful and respected citizen 
in the home of his choice. 

The bible speaks of "a. way of es- 
cape." "Where sin abounds grace 
doth much more abound." Sugges- 
tion, being a law of mind not made by 
man, must be a law of God. As such 
I personally view it and accept it. 

In all moral reform suggestively 
induced the practitioner should ever 
hold before him what may be called 
the Law of Attractiveness, i. e., he 
should make the good attractive and 
the bad hateful in the mind of his sub- 



104 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

ject. This is important to remember, 
and is based on the fundamental prin- 
ciple that the human will, like all oth- 
er forces, moves along the line of least 
resistance. The reason and the feel- 
ings clear the track of obstacles to the 
will. Any line which reason says is 
right and which the feelings confirm 
as desirable, becomes, ipso facto, the 
line of least resistance and the will at 
once sets out and steps out along that 
very line. Reason and feeling run 
ahead, prepare the way, and the will 
comes trudging after. Help each other 
by this principle. What fullness of 
joy the cup of life would then con- 
tain! 

A little girl had formed the habit 
of telling lies in order to attract atten- 
tion. When this fact was learned it 
was made the key of her recovery. It 
was lodged in her mind that her lies 
caused people to avoid her, to dislike 
her; but that if she were truthful she 
would make people like her, would 
make many friends and attract a great 
deal more attention than in any other 



ITS FIELD. 105 

way. Simple ! but successful. The 
truth was simply persisted in until it 
took root, grew and choked out the 
evil. "Where sin abounds grace doth 
much m'ore abound." 

Reformers, preachers, revivalists, 
evangelists, ethical culturists, and 
Christian scientists, should earnestly 
and patiently study Suggestion. It will 
richly repay them personally in their 
earnest efforts to improve character 
and ameliorate the race, and their 
carefully recorded results would prove 
valuable, on the other hand, to the 
cause of science and of Truth. 

Dr. Pitzer says: — In the treatment 
of habits, if we desire to speedily cor- 
rect a bad habit in anyone, we should, 
after our first statement to him of his 
actual condition, strenuously avoid all 
reference to his vices. From first to 
last we should point out a new and 
correct life for him to live. We should 
never berate a patient, nor accuse him 
of weakness of any kind ; on the con- 
trary, we should show him' his strong- 
points and good qualities. We should 



106 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

assure him that he wants to be good 
and do well, and that he can do what- 
ever he desires to do. It is always 
better to appeal to a patient's pride — 
to his higher nature — than to scold 
him and threaten him with some kind 
of punishment. By suggestion, we 
cannot cure drunkenness, kleptomania, 
nor any other moral perversion, upon 
the hell-fire-and-brimstone principle. 
We may frighten a thief away from 
our chicken roost with a shot-gun, but 
if we do not disable him too much he 
will steal some other man's chickens 
before he gets home. 

I conclude this long chapter with 
some earnest and ringing words from 
the writings of Arthur Frederick Shel- 
don. This particular quotation is 
taken from his pamphlet on "Sugges- 
tion in Salesmanship." He says: "I 
can see nothing in the law of Sugges- 
tion which is at all in conflict with 
any of the religions. It is simply one 
of Nature's laws — one of God's laws, 
if you please. It is simply a part of 
truth, and all truth is a part of the 



ITS FIELD. 107 

eternal intelligence. It seems to me 
that it is just as much a scientific fact 
as is the law of gravitation. The Sci- 
entist and the Christian alike, whether 
the Scientist is a believer in religion 
or not, can accept the existence of the 
law of gravitation as one of Nature's 
laws. Why not so accept the law of 
Suggestion ? 

"1 am well aware of the fact that 
there are many who would like to sur- 
round this great scientific fact with a 
lot of so-called mystery — who would 
attribute to it mysterious powers and 
forces, and who seek to build upon it 
a superstructure of charlatanism. 
Such attempts are the result of either 
ignorance or superstition, or dishon- 
esty — but the trouble is not with the 
law. It is with those who seek to 
pervert it, or abuse it. There is noth- 
ing mysterious about it. For my own 
part, believing as I do, in the existence 
of an omnipotent, omniscient and an 
omnipresent Intelligence that doeth all 
things well, I can accept the law of 
Suggestion as one of God's laws, give 



108 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

Him the credit for its existence, and 
thank Him for His great gift in giving 
it to man. If there is any law, or 
truth which makes it possible for man 
to so build himself that he may ap- 
proach the image and likeness of his 
Creator, it is this very law of Sugges- 
tion. 

"I firmly believe, that, in the not 
far distant future, its general under- 
standing is to effect a universal awak- 
ening on the part of the long-time- 
slumbering human race, which will 
compel progress by leaps and bounds. 
It is making men and women realize 
the fact that they are bundles of won- 
derful possibilities, and it is giving 
them the implement with which to at- 
tain true and rapid self-development." 



CHAPTER NINE. 

OBJECTIONS. 

r PH ! REEl objections have been urged 
against the practice of hypnotism. 
i. That it facilitates crime. 2. That 
it controls people against their will. 
3. That it slowly weakens the will of 
subjects. 

The Medico-Legal Society of New 
York has looked into nearly all the 
matter, cases, reports and judicial de- 
cisions, bearing on the first objection, 
and the conclusion reached is stated 
as follows by Roger Sherman, Esq. : — 
The hypnotized subject will never 
commit a crime in that state that he 
would not commit in his normal con- 
dition. (See foot-note.) 

Note — In case any reader wishes to look 
this point up more in detail, the following 
references are given: (1) The Prohibition 
of Hypnotic Exhibitions. By Prof. T. B. 
Mierzejewski 9, Medico-Legal Journal, 265. 
109 



110 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

J. Milne Br^wnwell, speaking with 
the authority coming from his enor- 
mous experience, tells us that improp- 
er suggestions are invariably rejected, 
so far as he has seen, and calls atten- 
tion to the even stronger fact that, 
after all the years in which hypno- 
tism has been a matter of public mar- 



(2) Note in 11, Medico-Legal Journal, 227. 

(3) Hypnotism in Medico-Legal Jurispru- 
dence. By Judge Abram H. Dailey. 11, Med- 
ico-Legal Journal, 261. (4) Hypnotic Influ- 
ence in Criminal Cases. By H. M. Bannis- 
ter. 51, Albany Law Journal, 87. (5) Edit- 
orial in 51, Albany Law Journal, 241. 
(6) Hypnotism and the Law. By Clark Bell. 
13, Medico-Legal -Journal, 47. (7) Editorial in 
50, Albany Law Journal, 377. (8) Hyp- 
notism and Crime. By Xavier Sudduth. 13, 
Medico-Legal Journal, 239. (9) The Case 
of Czynski, By Moritz Ellinger, Esq. 14, 
Medico-Legal Journal, 150. (10) Editorial in 
3, American Lawyer, 45. (11) Hypnotism and 
the Law 95, Law Times, 500. (12) Hypnotism 
and the Law. 6, Green Bag, 143. (13) The 
Case of Spurgeon Young, By Clark Bell. 14, 
Medico-Legal Journal 529. (14). The Forensic 
in Law, By Prof. John Reese. 9, Medico- 
Legal Journal,147.(16) The Hypnotic Power- 
What is it? By Abram H. Dailey. 13, Med- 
ico-Legal Journal, 274. (17) Hypnotism, in 
the Criminal Courts, By Clark Bell. 13, Med- 
ico-Legal Journal, 351. (18) Editorial, 52, 
Albany Law Journal, 227, (19) Hypnotism in 
the Criminal Courts, By Clark Bell, 18, 
Criminal Law Magazine, 1. (20) Article. 3, 
American Lawyer, 5. (21) Report on Hyp- 



OBJECTIONIS. Ill 

vel, there has not been found a single 
proved case of crime effected by means 
of it. "This conclusion," Dr. Walter 
Leaf is right in remarking, "is one of 
the most solid results of his book." 

Contrary to the current ideas on the 
subject, therefore, we must insist that 
the hypnotized subject is always re- 
sponsible for his actions simply be- 
cause his moral nature is not changed 
by the fact that he is in the sugges- 



notism, 11, Medico-Legal Journal, 73. (22) 
Hypnotism and Crime Note. 18, Criminal 
Law Magazine, 100. (23) Legal Aspects of 
Hypnotism, By J. W. Brodie-Innes. 8, Judri- 
dical Review, 51. (24) Hypnotism and 
Crime. 27, Chicago Legal News, 65. (25) 
Editorial in 50, Albany Law Journal, 217. 
(26) Hypnosis, By Henry Drayton. 12, Med- 
ico-Legal Journal, 70. (27) Hypnotism, By 
T. D. Crothers. 12, Medico-Legal Journal, 
462, (28) Different Forms of Hypnotism. By 
Carl Sextus 15, Medico-Legal Journal, 250. 
(2D) Hysteric Accusations and Hypnotism. 
15, Medico-Legal Journal, 266. (30) Hypno- 
tism, By Clark Bell. 7, Medico-Legal Jour- 
nal, 363, (31) Hypnotism, By Wm. H. Pal- 
mer, 7, Medico-Legal Journal. 233. (32) Hyp- 
notism and the Law, By Clark Bell. 8, Mea- 
ico-Legal, 331. (33) Extended Note 40, 
Lawyer's Reports Annotated, 269. (34) Kan- 
sas City Bar Monthly, 20, (35) Hamilton- 
Leg-Med., 23, 212, 541. (36) Cleringer Med. 
Juris, of Insane, 107. (37) 18, Criminal Law 
Magazine, 100. (38) 18, Arena, 548. 



112 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

tible state. He will not accept a sug- 
gestion under hypnosis which is in 
conflict with his moral convictions or 
settled principles. A subject of good 
moral character cannot be magically 
or immediately influenced by Sugges- 
tion to perform an act which, in his 
normal waking state, he would con- 
sider immoral or even undignified, 
whilst a subject of loose habits will 
readily exhibit the same characteris- 
tics in the hypnotic state. 

Remember that the assent of the 
subject is necessary to the carrying 
out of every Suggestion. If, there- 
fore (in answer to a question that is 
often asked), a pure minded woman 
should fall into the hands of an un- 
scrupulous operator and he should at- 
tempt to take advantage of her sup- 
posedly helpless condition, one of two 
things would instantly happen, either 
she would waken up immediately or 
else she would become ungovernably 
hysterical until the danger had passed. 

Dr. Halphide wisely remarks that it 
is very difficult to make satisfactory 



OBJECTIONS. 113 

experiments in criminal suggestions 
simply because any real experiments 
would be crimes and then, too, for 
this very reason they would not be 
reported if successfully made. 

Of course by oft repeated and con- 
tinued suggestions of evil the good 
may be seduced. That's the way all 
"sin" grows. It is conceived in 
thought, gestated in heart, and then 
born in act. We call these "insinua- 
tions" and "gradual approaches." But 
this process requires time, whether in 
the waking or hypnotic condition. It 
can not be accomplished in one experi- 
ment or trial. (See p. 20.) 

The conclusion is that Suggestion 
in no way facilitates crime or makes 
"sin" easier or furnishes the unscrupu- 
lous with a royal road to the accom- 
plishment of base purposes. 

The idea that hypnotism facilitates 
crime rests, it seems to me, on the 
quite current idea that it is easier to 
do evil than to do good, easier to pros- 
titute goodness into badness than to 
elevate badness into goodness. Yet 



114 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

I submit that it is easier to make a 
thief into an honest man than to make 
an honest man into a thief. The cen- 
tury long history of religious "con- 
version" proves our contention, as 
well as the physical, mental and moral 
triumphs of Suggestion. This is a 
word of hope. "Where sin abounds 
grace doth much more abound." The 
tendency of the soul, of the subliminal 
consciousness, is to the good — to be- 
lieve and to love. Hence it is easier 
to make a good man out of a bad one 
than to make a bad man out of a good 
one. Suggestion corrects crime, re- 
bukes it, affords character "a way of 
escape," and so facilitates the estab- 
lishment of the good, beautiful, and 
true. 

The second objection to hypnotism 
is partly correct and partly incorrect, 
for in reply to the question, "Can one 
be hypnotized against his will," I must 
answer "yes" and "no"— "Yes," by 
force methods; "No," by gentle meth- 
ods, for all gentle methods require 
acquiescence, agreement, consent, de- 



OBJECTIONS. 115 

sire and will. Can one have a boil 
lanced against his will?" Yes, by 
force methods, if he is held down 
while the surgeon applies the knife; 
no, by gentle methods, because they 
require his full and free assent. This 
illustration clearly and completely an- 
swers the second objection to the prac- 
tice of hypnotism. 

The belief and fear which some peo- 
ple entertain that salesmen and agents 
can be so deftly qualified in the so- 
called "subtle art" that they can hyp- 
notize the presidents of firms and oth- 
er business men whom they interview 
to the point of giving orders for goods 
or signing contracts against their will 
or in violation of better judgment, is 
simply ridiculous. Remember the rule, 
which is that no one can be hypno- 
tized without his own consent and 
desire, and does any reader for one 
moment suppose that business men 
would allow any salesman to apply the 
Braid method, or the Parkyn method, 
or any of the methods described? 
Would they sit still and be hypnotized 



116 LAW OF SUGGGESTION. 

before entering into a business inter- 
view? The question itself involves its 
own quite clear and sufficient answer. 
No business college or commercial col- 
lege pretends even to fit its students 
to do such an absurd and impossible 
thing. 

Hypnotism is employed for quite 
other purposes. No salesman is trained 
nor can be trained to paralize the will, 
judgment and good sense of his cus- 
tomer; on the contrary he is instruct- 
ed to make his appeal to these very 
faculties so that the customer will be 
led to apprehend and fully realize the 
value of the goods which the salts- 
man is exploiting. 

Moreover, Suggestion or auto-sug- 
gestion is applied by the scientific 
talesman to himself (not to the custo- 
mer) in order to develop courage, loy- 
alty, earnestness, faith, and the posi- 
tive qualities generally. 

The third objection is well taken 
when the subject is used for mere ex- 
hibition purposes, on the public stage. 
I think it is the degradation and p r os- 



OBJECTIONIS. 117 

titution of a sacred thing, or a divine 
blessing, to trot out suggestion as a 
mere show, a circus, a clown perform- 
ance for the entertainment of a won- 
der-swallowing public. Did you ever 
hear of these public "hypnotists" them- 
selves submitting to hypnotization 
thinking that by being frequently hyp- 
notized and exhibited they would grow 
strong and positive, wise, balanced, 
and better? You never heard of such 
a thing. Enough said. 

Again. The will of the subject may 
be weakened if sugestions to that ef- 
fect are given. But what devil incar- 
nate would think of treating a subject 
that way? 

Among the schools and reputable 
mental therapists the will of the sub- 
ject is always strengthened. Sugges- 
tions to that specific end are always 
given. Suggestion thus becomes a 
great aid, "A way of escape" for the 
weak, the suffering, the feeble-minded 
and feeble-moraled — a great, good, 
divine power — and should so be used, 
never for show but always for salva- 



118 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

tion. The subject becomes conscious 
of an uplift, of a new control of him- 
self, by himself and for himself. This 
is the truly blessed effect of sugges- 
tion rightly administered. It opens 
up a line of least resistance from a 
bad habit of body, mind, or morals, 
to a good habit. This new channel, by 
iteration, is dug deeper and deeper, 
until finally the new habit is not only 
fashioned but formed and fixed— con- 
sciousness, taste, reason and desire 
run along in it, and the man, thus re- 
constructed, can be safely left to him- 
self, for he will now react properly, 
wisely, and well. 

Consequently all objections fade 
away, and suggestion has a clear track 
to popular favor, scientific perfection, 
and universal usefulness. 



CHAPTER TEN. 

DANGERS. 

i st. Imaginary Dangers. 

r PHE popular fear that a subject 
when sunk in deep hypnotic sleep 
may sleep on and on and on without 
waking is utterly groundless. One of 
my subjects slept for eighteen hours, 
ten hours longer than I wished or ex- 
pected. Some of the attendants be- 
came alarmed. I simply closed the 
room and allowed him .to sleep until 
he wakened up spontaneously. He. 
doubtless really needed the sleep. He 
felt better afterwards. If, therefore, a 
subject does not waken when the op- 
erator expects him to x do not get ex- 
cited, simply close the room, keep all 
excitable people out, and allow the 
slumber to run its course. 

The sensational advertisements 

119 



120 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

about the dangers of hypnotism must 
be classified here. For example, a sen- 
sational circular I hold in my hand 
is full of warnings to prospective stu- 
dents, that they must promise not to 
make people sign wills or give money 
or fall in love with them, etc., before 
the course will be sent. All of this 
nonsense is intended simply to inflame 
the minds and desires of the would- 
be hypnotist and stimulate him to 
part with his money in order to be- 
come initiated into these great mas- 
teries ! 

T recently saw the following adver- 
tisement, ''The most terrible dangers 
attend the use of this mysterious 
power. Have nothing to do with it, 
until you have read our warning. Sent 
postpaid on receipt of five cents." 
Others promise you startling methods 
for instantaneously hypnotizing every- 
body in sight and out of sight, with 
psychic means for leaving your body 
and traveling all over the globe with 
your soul without paying any fare, 
etc., etc., accompanied with warn- 



DANGERS. 121 

ings, however, that you must promise 
to "be good" before this wonderful 
power is placed in your hands ! 

We will dismiss all such matter 
with but a word, viz; it is all arrant 
nonsense. 

Second. Real Dangers. 

ist. There is the real danger in- 
volved, when a medical layman, un- 
trained in diagnosis, attempts to prac- 
tice suggestive therapeutics in func- 
tional or organic diseases of a more or 
less serious degree. D|r. Albert H. 
Burr very truly says, "Deaths from 
appendicitis, diptheria, and typhoid 
fever, are in evidence frequently under 
Christian Science suggestion, where 
medical assistance was ignored. Under 
the practice of suggestive therapeu- 
tics, the same sort of catastrophe is 
possible. The onset of many danger- 
ous diseases is gradual ; it is here that 
the tinkering with symptoms by the 
laity is so perilous to the patient, in 
the loss of valuable time, or in masking 
of signs which should first be inter- 
preted by a competent physian." 



122 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

With these sentiments Drs. Halpide, 
Parkyn, Pitzer and the medical profes- 
sion generally all agree. 

Certainly, persons utterly incapable 
to diagnose diseases should not be 
permitted to treat them. This it seems 
to me is self evident. 

2nd. We must here remark the 
danger of misleading and deceiving 
the public by the tricks of stage ex- 
hibitions. These shows awaken either 
false alarm or false hopes on the part 
of the public. 

Much of it is absolutely misleading. 
These public hypnotists as a rule, 
carry their own "horses" with them, 
which is a technical term for "subs" 
trained to do certain stunts. In ad- 
dition to this they always pay local 
boys and young men who for this 
reason, as well as the prominence it 
gives them, seek to please the hypno- 
tist, and do any fool thing he com- 
mands them. I have interviewed a 
number of these so-called subjects, 
and they invariably tell the same tale. 
"Never hypnotized a bit, knew what 



DANGERS. 123 

we were doing all the time, did it 
to please the man, and get our pay, 
or a free ticket to the show, and we 
laughed in our sleeves at the wonder- 
ment of the audience." 

D?r. H. A. Parkyn, in his excellent 
''Mail Course on Hypnotism," turns 
the light on many of these seeming 
wonders. For example the "two days 
sleep." This always proves a great 
advertising scheme. People by the 
hundreds will see the subject sleep- 
ing in a store window and will be 
filled with wonderment and awe; but 
the trick is not so wonderful after 
all. The subject is first treated to a 
dose of caster oil or rhubarb! The 
purpose of this is apparent! Some 
operators then give their subjects 
large doses of chloral just before "hyp- 
notising" them. Under this treatment 
much of the time will be sleep induced 
by exhaustion consequent upon the 
purgative and fortified by 'the nar- 
cotic. 

3rd. The greatest danger of all is 
neither of the two just mentioned, but 



124 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

consists in ignorance of the law and 
force of Suggestion on the part of 
people generally, who influence each 
other unfavorably and unintentionally. 
In the preceding chapters, I have giv- 
en a number of instances where par- 
ents actually made criminals of their 
children or otherwise weakened them. 
I introduce one or two instances here. 

Dr. Halphide, records the follow- 
ing: "A few weeks ago a lady called 
upon me with gleaming eyes, and ex- 
cited manner asked, 'Am I insane ?' 
As quietly as possible, I replied, 
'No, I don't think so, Why?' 
'Oh !' she said, 'I have been seeing 
and doing strange things lately/ Then 
she explained that her husband had 
been telling her for months, morning, 
noon, and night, repeatedly, that she 
was crazy. And his diabolical plan came 
near succeeding in making her so." 

She has been saved, but others 
have been lost. Serious results come 
from improper suggestions. The fol- 
lowing case I give in full because 
of its educational value, to both phy- 
sicians and the laity. 



DANGERS. 125 

A highly sensational report was pub- 
lished a few years ago in newspapers, 
In big headlines the announcement 
was made, that George Ziegler was 
under the mysterious spell of a hypno- 
tist, subject to terrible spasms, which 
'the hypnotist had caused, but was 
powerless to check, and that a dozen 
doctors had failed to help him. These 
mysterious attacks occurred at exact* 
ly the same time every day. Such, in 
brief, was the newspaper account. 

Since the supposed subject of this 
dreadful ( !) psychological calamity 
was a fellow citizen of mine, in the 
city of Reading, Pa., where I then re- 
sided, I decided to look the matter 
up. 

I called on Mr. Ziegler's mother and 
gleaned the following narrative from 
her, all of which was subsequently con* 
firmed by the young man himself. He 
had enlisted in the volunteer troops 
during the Cuban war, and had con- 
tracted typhoid at camp. He was sent 
home not completely cured, and this, 
they think, was the start of the trouble 



126 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

which manifested itself a few weeks 
after his return. It consisted of severe 
cramps in the colon or bowels, that 
came on regularly after supper, and 
were very severe. Three physicians 
were called in successively to treat 
the case, but could do nothing with it, 
except to make it worse. They told 
him that if his bowels would knot 
during these attacks, it would kill 
him, and that he always should have 
good strong aid at hand to hold him 
when the attack came on. This be- 
came a terrible nightmare, fear and 
dread to him. So he always hurried 
away from the house after supper and 
hastened to a cigar store a square or 
two away, where the spasms came on, 
and where the men loafing there held 
and assisted him as he requested. His 
mother admitted, when I asked her, 
that she thought his fear of the thing 
was greater than the trouble itself. 

The doctors failing, he had resorted 
to a Mexican woman in town, of 
whom he accidently heard. He im- 
mediately began to mend after con- 



DANGERS. 127 

suiting her, and in short, was com- 
pletely cured of his mysterious symp- 
toms. "He only had two attacks after 
he took her medicine, and those were 
light ones. Just exactly as the Mexi- 
can woman said would happen," said 
his mother to me, evidently with mys- 
tic faith in the occult powers of this 
Mexican woman. 

After examining the five kinds of 
medicine she had given him, I at once 
hunted up this aforesaid wonderful 
Mexican woman. Her name is Mrs. 
M. A. Snyder. She is a tall, healthy 
looking, florid cheeked, ignorant, but 
bright and energetic woman of Span- 
ish blood, and Mexican birth, who had 
married a man from Virginia and after 
his death settled here. She remem- 
bered the young man. Said his case 
was a simple one. That his nerves 
were "swollen and tight," and that 
she had given him medicine to "loosen 
them up!" That was all. Simple, 
wasn't it! 

But on further probing, I found that 
she had told him in positive and 



128 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

strong terms that he would have only 
two more attacks of his cramps — and 
these light ones, and after that he 
would have none. 

These are the facts. It is not diffi- 
cult for one familiar with the power 
and operation of ""suggestion" and 
"expectant attention" to see light in it 
all. So that whilst it is not a case of 
hypnotic influence, such as the papers 
reported it to be^ nevertheless, we see 
the power of suggestion coming in, 
in a marked manner, when the physi- 
cian gave him the idea he would die 
if his bowels would knot, and that 
they might knot if he did not have 
some one to hold him at the moment 
of spasm ! (How careful physicians 
should be regarding the suggestions 
they give to a weakened person. There 
is no question that a careful study of 
suggestion would be a marvelous aid 
to a practical doctor.) When he went 
to the Mexican, he went under the 
spell of "expectant attention," roused 
by thej remarkable stories of her powers 
received from neighbors and gossips. 



DANGERS. 129 

She deepened this influence by claim- 
ing to see through and through his 
case, and then prescribing five differ- 
ent kinds of medicine ! One to rub on 
the head, one on the arms, one on the 
abdomen, and two 1 to take internally 
at stated intervals ! What an impres- 
sion that would make ! He would feel 
that something was being done for 
him, and feel it with a vengeance ! 
Then came that final suggestion — mys- 
terious to him in its prophetic char- 
acter—that he would have only two, 
just two and no more, no less, attacks 
after leaving her house. And lo! it 
came to pass even as the oracle had 
said! 

Such are the facts in the case. I 
might say that the Ziegler family is 
an ordinary workingman's family, ap- 
parently honest, and with the average 
intelligence usually belonging to that 
class. 

I append Dt. Parkyn's comment: — 
"This case is one of suggestion ver- 
sus suggestion. The suggestion given 
by the physician to the patient that his 



130 L*AW OF SUGGESTION. 

boweis might knot and subsequently 
kill him, no doubt increased the trou- 
ble through the influence of fear. It is 
a very mistaken idea to give such 
suggestions under an3^ circumstances, 
for they only do harm as fear thoughts 
manifest themselves in physical de- 
rangements. 

"The five kinds of medicine ! given 
by Mrs. Snyder were five suggestions 
of a different type, and they, with the 
positive verbal suggestions did the 
work that the physicians might have 
done had they recognized the sugges- 
tibility of the patient. 

"This is remarkable, but not an un- 
usual case of the power of suggestion, 
and it furnishes an object lesson to 
physicians who do not use that won- 
derful agent in their practice. It is 
easy to cry 'charlatanism,' but the 
fact that even charlatans can use this 
power with good results, albeit they 
use it ignorantly and unconsciously, 
should be enough to induce the edu- 
cated physician to test it intelligently. 
Fuse it with the knowledge already 



DANGERS. 131 

obtained from the superior education 
and broader culture of the true phy- 
sician, and use it as an added weapon 
to combat disease. 



CHAPTER ELEVEN. 

EXPLAINS MANY POPULAR MY- 
STERIES. 

Pow-wowing is still extant in many- 
sections of our country, and is free- 
ly practiced especially in eastern 
Pennsylvania where I have studied it 
attentively. 

Take an instance. Some children 
stop growing, for several months or 
more, at about ten or twelve years of 
age. This stand-still frightens some 
superstitious parents, and they fly to 
a pow-wow for relief. The child is 
taken to the woods and backed up 
against a sappling, a mark is made on 
it even with his stature, and the im- 
pression left upon his plastic and won- 
dering mind that as the sapling grows 
so will he. 

This whole ceremonious proceeding 
is not an idle or an empty form. It 

132 



EXPLAINS MYSTERIES, 133 

contains for the child an impressive 
object-suggestion, iterated as often as 
the child thinks of the mysterious and 
silent walk to the woods, or goes there 
and looks at the growing sapling. 
Moreover the fact that his papa or 
mamma believed in it to such an ex- 
tent as to pay or offer gifts for hav- 
ing it done, directly reaches the child's 
faith-center, the hope-center, the in- 
terior dynamo of personality and 
power. 

I have letters from the most earnest, 
responsible and best of Christian peo- 
ple, honestly and unequivocably ad- 
mitting the help they or their children 
had received, from the mysterious 
practices of the paw-wow woman. I 
do not doubt the veracity of the nar- 
rators in the least. The secret of it 
all is simply, that a healing sugges- 
tion was given, in a striking, pictur- 
esque, and impressive manner, the 
pow-wower being entirely ignorant of 
the real law she was using, and ascrib- 
ing the favorable effects either to her 
mysterious mummery, or to "God," or 



134 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

the "Bible." It was not the measuring 
or rubbing or breathing (Insuflation) 
that cured the sick, but the suggestion 
thus administered to them. The heal- 
ing power that was set in motion re- 
sided, as it always does, in the sub- 
jects themselves; hope was revived, 
expectancy quickened, nerve centers 
stimulated, dormant reflexes re-estab- 
lished, and the cure accomplished. 

Natural healers so-called, such as the 
notorious Schlatter, Newell the Ver- 
mont "healer," and others of their 
type, springing up sporadically from 
time to time, unconciously employ the 
Law of Suggestion. They instinctive- 
ly succeed in arousing great expect- 
ancy and awed hope (Faith) on the 
part of their followers (Subjects). The 
more striking their personal appear- 
ance with their long hair and pecul- 
iar dress, the more mysterious their 
measures and methods, the more 
deeply the masses are impressed, 
moved and moulded by their own feel- 
ings thus aroused, and with their own 
superstitious faith and the intensity of 



EXPLAINS MYSTERIES. 135 

this faith are the results commensur- 
ate. 

Anything, no matter how apparently 
foolish it may seem to an intelligent 
person, which reaches and rouses the 
faith or expectjant attention of the 
subject, is the real therapeutic stimu- 
lant for that subject. This explains 
the effect of Charms, Talismans, etc. 
I i It clears up the mystery, also, which 
the early experimenters unquestion- 
ably had with what they called "mag- 
'natized water/" It was their practice 
to hold their hands near a glass of 
water, with fingers pointing towards 
lb. They believed the water thus be- 
came charged with their own agasa or 
"life fluid" which was able to heal the 
sick or put a subject to sleep. Berze- 
lius, the Great Stockholm chemist, be- 
lieved in all this, as did Dr. Gregory 
of Edinburgh University, Dr. Elliotson 
of London, Dlr. Lutze of Germany, 
Deleuze, Esd'aile, Chandos Leigh 
Hunt, Dr. Babbitt of San Jose, Dr. 
Buchanan, and many others. 

Dieleuze says, "The water is to be 



136 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

poured over the tips of the fingers, 
and the glass is then to be mesmer- 
ized by passing the hands down along 
its sides, and the water may also be 
breathed upon." We can see at a glance 
that a highly suggestible subject ob- 
serving all this preparation would 
have abounding faith in this myster- 
ious water, and thus again the Law 
of Suggestion is observed as the ac- 
tive principle producing the desired 
effect. 

Have you ever seen four people, all 
breathing rhythmically and synchron- 
ously, lift a fifth person by their mere 
finger tips? 

Many people think this a wonder- 
ful performance and they have a feel- 
ing that it reveals some occult power 
of nature, the reverse of gravitation. 
Townshend held, in explanation of it, 
that "Human bodies grow lighter if 
full of mesmerism. " 

B'ut what is the secret and rationale 
of it all? Every member of the lift- 
ing quartet expects the subject to feel 
light, and all of them, overlooking the 



EXPLAINS MYSTERIES. 137 

fact for the moment that each is lift- 
ing only one-fourth of the weight and 
focusing attention upon the entire 
weight, are suprised when, moving 
simultaneously, the human body feels 
almost as light as air. Every time 
I have participated in this experiment, 
I have always been clearly concious 
of the fact that I was lifting one- 
fourth of the weight of the person, i. e. 
twenty-five to forty pounds. It is 
simply the auto-suggestion of light- 
ness and the fact that each lifts only 
one-fourth instead of the entire weight, 
that explains the phenomenon and 
solves the mystic puzzle. 

The experiment affords a "fair to 
good" illustration of the power of psy- 
chological co-operation plus physical 
co-operation, the psychological consist- 
ing in the cooperative suggestion of 
the four elevators and the physical in 
the exact simultaneity of the conjoint 
lift. So that there is not a scintilla of 
occultism, of the inexplicable, or of 
"levitation" in the whole performance, 
or in any part of it. 



CHAPTER TWELVE. 

SIMPLE RULES FOR SELF 
HELP. 

J President Webster Edgarly says, 

"Ninety-three to ninety-seven per cent 
of all people possess more or less of 
that hypnotizing power which while it 
rarely ever steals our faculties, never- 
theless deadens our full powers of self 1 
assertion when in their presence !" 

I presume all have had the experi- 
ence of thinking of better things to 
say after an interview or an occasion 
has passed than what they did say at 
the time, and then bewailing their 
dullness and condemning their own 
short-sightedness and lack of tact. 

It is certainly true that the ability to 
defend one's self at will against the 
influences of others, personal or argu- 
mentative, and to exercise a helpful 
and inspiring control over others for 

138 



RULES FOR SELF HELP 139 

mutual benefit and joy, is one of the 
most important, if not the most im- 
portant accomplishment of life. 

Ulyses said, "I am a part of all I 
ever met." "No man liveth unto him- 
self." We are constantly receiving 
suggestions from others, by which we 
are influenced to some extent and in 
some way, whether for good or bad 
depending upon our knowledge of the 
Law of Suggestion and our free choice 
in each case as it meets uis. 

A knowledge of the Law of Sug- 
gestion enables one to guard himself 
against any undue influence. The 
secret is simply this : As long as you 
are conscious of watching results, of^ 
perceiving the art, tact, or diplomacy 
of your associate or interviewer, you 
can never be taken unawares, for you 
never yield without willing to. The 
idea that you can yield unconciously 
or without a distinct act of your own 
will, is an utter fallacy and an unmiti- 
gated sophistry. 

The best help is self help, you can- 
not help others unless you first know 



140 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

how to help yourself. You cannot 
control others until you learn to con- 
trol yourself. Learn to help your- 
self, in order to be the best help to 
your needy brother. For example : the 
scholar who studies truth for truth's 
sake not only improves himself, but is 
the best one to teach truth to another; 
but without first helping and satisfy- 
ing himself, he could not help or sat- 
isfy another. This rule holds univers- 
ally. 

Practice in Self Control. 
In this hustling, galvanic age, the 
universal personal requisite is intelli- 
gent, voluntary placidity. 
Rules. 

SIT STILL TWO MINUTES 

No twisting of moustache; No 
nervous working of fan ; No 
swinging of feet; No drumming 
with fingers, etc. 
STAND: STILL. . ..TWO MINUTES 
No shuffling from one foot to an- 
other; No picking of clothes with 
fingers. 
LOOK STILL TWO MINUTES 



RULES FOR ELF HELP. 141 

No roving of eyes ; No blinking 
of eyelids; No staring; Be at ease. 

BE STILL. . . TWO MINUTES. 

No talking, not even moving of 

the thousand-jointed tongue in the 

mouth ; give it a much needed 

rest. 

Follow the advice of Dr. Quiet, 

and you will seldom need to consult 

Dr. Diet. 

"In quietness and confidence, shall 

be thy strength." 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN. 

SOME EXTRAORDINARY PHE- 
NOMENA. 

i. Telepathy. 

Frank Podmore, in his book on "Ap- 
paritions and Thought-Transference/' 
calls attention to the rather curious 
fact that, "The personal influence of 
the operator in hypnotism may per- 
haps be regarded as a proof presump- 
tive of telepathy. When all the phe- 
nomena of mesmerism were attributed 
by the few who believed in them to 
the passage of a fluid from the mes- 
merist to his patient, it was easy to 
credit the successful operator with as 
large an endowment of available fluid 
as the facts might seem to require ; but 
from those who assert, that the results 
are not merely explicable, but are in 
practice to be explained, as due to 

142 



EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA. 143 

suggestion alone, no entirely satisfac- 
tory explanation has ever been forth- 
coming, of the observed differences be- 
tween one operator and another. It 
is difficult to believe that Liebault, 
Bernheim, Schrenck-Notzing, Van 
Eeden, Lloyd Tuckey, Bramwell, etc., 
have succeeded, where so many others 
have failed, merely through the exer- 
cise of greater patience or the posses- 
sion of an established reputation, 
which after all is based on the suc- 
cesses which it is now invoked to ex- 
plain." 

The only explanation is, as Mr. Pod- 
more suggests, that the subject 
sensed, caught or absorbed something, 
(hope, confidence, determination) 
telepathically from similar vitalizers 
in the soul of the operator. They 
were en rapport — in psychic aimnity. 

Dr. Azam made experiments with 
his subjects in which the transference 
of tastes was made telepathically from 
his mouth to theirs; Edmond Gurney 
and Frank Podmore similarly made 
transference of pain by pinching dif- 



144 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

ferent parts of their own bodies, which 
were actually reflected in the corres- 
ponding parts of the bodies of sub- 
jects; Liebault, Sidgwick, Dr. Gibot- 
teau, transferred visual images; the 
Sidgwicks telepathically sent mental 
pictures; Gibert, Janet, DuFay, Heri- 
court, Dusart, and others, induced 
sleep in subjects at a distance by sil- 
ent willing or telepathy; Dr. Thaw 
similarly originated actions in hyp- 
notic subjects, etc. Nearly all of these 
experiments the author has success- 
fully repeated. 

Dr. Parkyn says, "An interesting 
experiment may be made by hypnotiz- 
ing a subject and telling him that he 
is gifted with second sight ; that it is 
possible for his mind to travel all over 
the country while he is hypnotized, 
and to bring bacft accurate informa- 
tion of incidents occurring in any part 
of the country, to which it may be 
directed. Some subjects perform this 
test better than others, and frequently 
+ he information which they appear to 
secure is so nearly accurate that it 



EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA. 145 

should make one hesitate to deny the 
existence of telepathy." 

I think that the phrases which he 
uses, "All over the country" and 
"Any part of the country" are too 
sweeping. At least I have not found 
this facility in sensitives with whom 
I have experimented. I have had 
some remarkable experiments, how- 
ever, in this line, which will be fully 
described in the book on "Telepathy." 
(See foot note.) 

2. The Subliminal Mind. 

In addition to the immense amount 
of matter compiled by Mr. F. W. H. 

Note — Dr. Krebs is writing a series of 
works on important and practical psycho- 
logical subjects, as follows: (1) "Twin De- 
mons," or the practical psychology of fear 
and worry. This has been published and 
can be had of the Science Press. (2) "The 
Law of Suggestion," the present volume. 
(3) "Sleep— What It Is, How to Get It and 
How to Use It." (4) "Telepathy" — its facts 
and underlying laws. A complete mono- 
graph on the subject. (5) "Mind and Soul" 
— their difference, relation and destiny. 
(6) "Emotive Research," a searching in- 
quiry into the origin, relation and trans- 
formability of human emotions. (7) "The 
Psychology of Faith" — the final work, in 
which the foregoing culminate. 



146 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

Myers on this absorbing subject, pare 
of which can be found in his classical 
work, "Human Personality," I wish 
at this point to recall a sarriple exam- 
ple of Bramwell's remarkable experi* 
ments with subjects wherein orders 
were carried out by these subjects at 
the expiration of such periods as 20,- 
290 minutes from the giving of the 
order. Think of that! Is the ordin- 
ary waking mind capable of such accu- 
racy? 

Here is either an extension of nor- 
mal faculty or else the revelation of a 
conscious sub-stratum, or subliminal 
consciousness, more capable than the 
outer or supraliminal. 

Such experiments as these confirm 
Mr. Myer's famous theory of dual con- 
sciousness. 

Bramwell admits the existence of 
this subliminal with caution. But he 
admits it — is almost forced to admit 
it, and this on the part of such a 
painstaking, thorough and careful in- 
vestigator carries great weight with 
scientific men. 



EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA. 147 

3. Birth or Heredity. 

This sub-consciousness or sublim- 
inal mind exists, as the term itself sug- 
gests, below and perhaps far below 
ordinary consciousness. Prof. Shaler 
of Harvard, and others, think it exists 
in cell life down in the vegetable 
world. Then why not in foetal life? 

That sex can be determined by men- 
tal states and therefore by suggestion 
at the right moment if two agree, is 
the latest theory. It is boldly claimed 
by more than one scientist that in- 
clinations of unborn babes, propensi- 
ties, and genius itself, may be affect- 
ed by prenatal suggestion. 

The possibilities of physically, ra- 
tionally, and emotionally elevating the 
human race through this agency open 
up to an almost infinite degree. 

4. Dleath Controlled. 

If applied to the birth-end of life, 
why may not Suggestion be applied to 
the other end, the death-end? Why 
may not death be defeated — at least 
for a time? It is a startling and ex- 
traordinary proposition. 



148 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

It is not all fancy, however. There 
are reasons for making it. Let me re- 
hearse here the interesting narrative 
given me orally and' afterwards sub- 
mitted in writing by a gentleman in 
the business world whose nam'e is 
known from one end of the country to 
the other. His father was dying of 
apoplexy. The attendant and consult- 
ing physicians had both declared that 
the end could no longer be averted. 
They solemnly asserted there was no 
hope. The busy son was telegraphed 
for. When he entered the room he 
gave a swift glance at his father, and 
then quietly, without disputing, ig- 
nored the killing psychic atmosphere 
of hopelessness in the room, and pro- 
ceeded as if driven by an instinctive 
though intelligent impulse, to intro- 
duce a life-giving atmosphere. Step- 
ping to the bedside, and placing his 
mouth to the ear of his parent, he cried 
with confidence, command and earn- 
estness, "Father ! father ! this is Fred ! 
Fred is here! We are all here. Come 
back to us — come back to us." There 



EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA. 149 

was, a slight moving of the eye lids, 
whereupon the son reassured him 
again in almost the same language. 
The father rallied his forces, and is 
living today, working on his farm. 

Write to Dr. Duncan C. Quakenbos, 
of New York, for some of his expe- 
riences in this little worked field. For 
Jhis frankness and courage in calling 
attention to the subject, we wish to 
extend our congratulations. 

Mr. C. O. Boring of Evanston, 111., 
has experienced and observed some 
striking cases of similar experiments 
with death. 

Nothing risked', nothing won. 
Nothing dared, nothing done. 

During the sixteen years of my min- 
istry as pastor of large congregations 
in Reading and Greensburgh, Pa., 
when I attended the last hours of 
many sick and dying, I often felt 
tempted to try something of the same 
kind; but, let me confess, I always 
weakened for fear of wounding the re- 
ligious sensibilities of the sorrowing 
friends, rendered all the more sensi- 



150 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

tive and repugnant to experiment (as 
they would deem it), upon the souls 
of their departing loved ones. So I 
desisted. Was I right or wrong? The 
opportunity, I surmise, will not come 
to me now so frequently. 

What does Walt Whitman mean 
When he says: — 

"To anyone dying, thither I speed and 
twist the knob of the door, 

Turn the bed-clothes toward the foot 
of the bed, 

I seize the descending man and raise 
him with resistless will, 

despairer, here is my neck, 

By God, you shall not go down ! hang 
your whole weight upon me. 

1 dilate with tremendous breath, I 
buoy you up, 

Every room of the house do I fill with 

an arm'd force, 
Lovers of me, bafflers of graves. 

Sleep — I and they keep guard all 

night, 
Not doubt, not decease shall dare to 

lay a finger upon you, 



EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA. 151 

I have embraced you, and henceforth 

possess you myself, 
And when you rise in the morning 

you will find what I tell you is so." 

Why is death more sacred than 
birth? Can anyone tell? Or, why do 
people deem it so? Reader, what rea- 
sons have you, if any? I should like 
to hear from you on this point. If the 
effort to introduce a human life into 
this world is right and commendable 
why is it thought wrong or sacrelig- 
ious to strive to keep or prolong it 
here? Can anyone tell? Personally, 
therefore, I think we should all boldly 
make EXPERIMENTS WITH 
DEATH. I hope science will when it 
comes to mine. Truth, wisdom, pro- 
gress, mastery, are far more valuable 
than one or many lives. 

5. Double Personality. 

From the numerous though still ex- 
traordinary cases of double and mul- 
tiple personality recorded and studied 
by the Society for Psychical Research, 
the French and German Societies, 



152 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

Prof. Wm. James, Prof. Janet, Dr. 
Azam, Prof. Sidgwick, Dr. Prince, Dr. 
Sidis, and others, we now know that 
human personality is vastly more of a 
complex affair than the Kantian pure 
ego metaphysics would have us be- 
lieve. Even Prof. Inge in his late 
work on "Christian Symbolism," ad- 
mits that the old doctrine of the im- 
perviousness or non-separability of the 
ego must be abandoned. Conscious- 
ness is complex. Mind is multiple, 
and like all composites it can be 
broken up into its component parts. 

Human personality can be shat- 
tered, shattered by shock or strain, in- 
ternal or external, psychological or 
sensory, as a pitcher may be broken 
into fragments by a blow, or by a 
strain increased gradually to the crit- 
ical point of collapse, where the force 
of molecular cohesion is overcome. 

Let me sight one case of pathologic 
double personality given by Dr. Azam 
which is a typical illustration of the 
class : — 

"Up to the age of fourteen, Felida 



EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA. 153 

X. was quick, industrious, somewhat 
silent, remarkable chiefly for a varied 
assortment of pains and ailments of 
hysterical origin. One day, when en- 
gaged in her regular occupation of 
sewing, she suddenly dropped off to 
sleep for a few minutes, and awoke a 
new creature. Her hysterical aches 
and ailments had disappeared, she had 
changed from gloom to gaiety, from 
morose silence to cheerful loquacity. 
Presently, Felida slept again, and 
awoke to her usual taciturnity. Asked 
by a companion to repeat the song she 
had just been singing, she stared in 
amaze — she had sung no song. In 
brief, all the incidents of that short 
hour between sleep and sleep were as 
though they had never been. In a 
day or two the same sequence was 
repeated, and so on day by day, until 
her friends learned to look for and 
welcome the change, and her lover 
grew accustomed to court her in the 
second state. In due course of time 
she married ; and as time went on, the 
second state came to usurp more and 



154 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

more of her conscious life, with only 
short intervals of recurrence of her 
normal condition. In her first or nor- 
mal state she retained the remem- 
brance of those things only which had 
come to her knowledge when in the 
normal state, but the memory of the 
second, or abnormal, state embraced 
her whole conscious life." 

I have a friend, a clergyman of 
Philadelphia, who is a psychic, a sen- 
sitive, and passes easily and spontan- 
eously into the trance-sleep. I have 
often experimented with him, in pur- 
suance of certain lines of psychologi- 
cal research. The story is a long one, 
and contains important features 
which should be placed on permanent 
record. Suffice it to state here and 
now that, when he passes into the 
trance condition, a second personality 
shows itself which has, through the 
years of my experimentation, always 
proved consistent with itself, having 
a set of memories and emotions, in- 
terests and purposes, entirely distinct 
from his own, when in a normal state. 



EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA. 155 

This case, moreover, slopes off into 
spontaneous mediumship, and this is 
the all absorbing realm in which Dr. 
Hodgson and Dr. Hyslop and the S. 
P. R. generally have been so profound- 
ly engaged and which involves those 
very problems a thorough study of 
which, Prof. Wm. James says, is of 
prime and imperative importance in 
understanding man and his wider cos- 
mic relations. The significance of 
these psychological signs and pointers, 
these psychic signals flashing up on 
the wider horizon of human personal- 
ity is simply tremendous. Oh ! that 
some man or men of money would 
adequately endow the research, place 
it in qualified scientific hands and send 
science forth free and untrammelled 
to enter into these great arcana of 
Consciousness for the incalculable 
good of humanity. Why so much 
money for the study of the mysteries 
of matter, and so little forthcoming 
for the investigation of the marvels 
of mind? 

To return to the broken pitcher: — 
These broken or split off fragments 



156 LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

fit to each other. But the difficulty 
of properly uniting them again in- 
creases in exact proportion to the 
number of the fragments. 

Now enters Dr. Morton C. Prince, 
of Boston, into the psychological 
arena with a case of multiple person- 
ality in which he has actually suc- 
ceeded in putting these mental pieces 
together again ! Get his recent work 
on "The Dissociation of a Personal- 
ity." Read it; study it. It is epoch- 
making. This case, Sallie Beauchamp, 
developed four distinct personalities, 
with more or less clearly defined 
traces of six or seven more. These 
discreet or split-off personalities he 
has at last, after years of patient study 
and experimentation, succeeded in vi- 
tally welding together again into a 
conscious unity, through suggestion. 
It is an achievement of which psychol- 
ogy may well feel proud. 

Many vital questions arise. Just a 
few here. 

What light does it throw upon in- 
duced insanities, I mean insanities 



EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA. 157 

caused after birth by shock or strain? 
And if they are once solved, may not 
phsychology plus surgery hopefully at- 
tack even the congenital types? And 
if that is accomplished can we place 
any limit to man's self mastery? 

I feel fully convinced that we are 
living in the dawn of the day when all 
these and other mysteries and marvels 
of mind will be fully understood and 
systematized, and their laws recog- 
nized and practiced, lifting man nearer 
the ideal of perfection and power over 
matter and mind than any other scien- 
tific discovery ever made — a day 
when man will walk, not simply the 
paragon of animals and the crown of 
physical creation, but also, as God A! 
mighty intended him, A MASTER OF 
MIND— A KING OF CONSCIOUS- 
NESS. 



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AUTO-SUGGESTION 

WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO USE IT 

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By 
HERBERT A. PARKYN, M. D., C. M. 



Published by 

The SCIENCE PRESS, The Republic, Chicago 

Price 75*, postage paid 



For contents see other side 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

3& Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn, M. D. 

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